Bioactive plants highlighted at Expointer 2023

A platform to discover and explore the production of bioactive plants was launched in the RS Innovation Agro space, part of the program of the 46th Expointer – one of the largest agribusiness fairs in Latin America.

According to Embrapa, bioactive plants are those that have some action on other living beings. Their effect can manifest through their presence in an environment and through the direct use of substances extracted from them, say researchers from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation.

Named ″Plataforma Agro dos Vales″, the project received funding of approximately BRL190,000. It is a partnership between the so-called quadruple helix: government, organized civil society, universities, and companies, coordinated by the University of Santa Cruz do Sul (Unisc). The initiative aims to ″value the connection between family farming and industries.″

The project coordinator and professor at Unisc, Chana de Medeiros da Silva, explained that the idea emerged from the need to look at adjacent chains. ″Considering our regional vocation, which is family farming, and our vision of the future of Inova RS, this need arose,″ Chana stated. The Vales region established health, services, and the agri-food sector as priority areas. The platform encompasses the possibility of refining research by family farmers, industries, and entities in the region, ensuring that the chain can see itself. This way, it would be possible to understand how many producers cultivate a certain variety of medicinal or aromatic plants and understand industrial demand.

Next, another subproject highlighted on the RS Innovation Agro stage was the study: ″Agro-industrial waste: biofactory for mass production of biological agents and bioconversion″. The lecture was presented by professor and researcher at Unisc, Andreas Köhler, and by Juarez Ferla, professor and researcher at the University of Vale do Taquari (Univates). In joint work, they develop a biofactory for producing biological agents to be used in family farming crops. According to Ferla, the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul has a shortage of control agent companies, and local production from community universities can meet this demand.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)