Agência Brasil

Brasília - The minister of Agriculture, Roberto Rodrigues, announced yesterday (26) that an office of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (EMBRAPA) will be opened in Africa.

The announcement was made at EMBRAPA headquarters in Brasília at the opening of the Science for Life exposition, to commemorate the company's 33 years of existence. "The idea is to create an EMBRAPA center in Ghana to act as propagator of technology to other African countries," the minister remarked. He pointed out that EMBRAPA already has offices in the United States and the European Union (France).

During the ceremony Rodrigues also announced the creation of a National Agro-energy Consortium, for the purpose of encouraging and organizing research into and production of fuel alcohol and biodiesel. According to the minister, agro-energy "is world agriculture's new paradigm."

He explained that "humanity depends on a product, called petroleum, that will run out someday. A clear vision exists nowadays that what is needed is an alternative to petroleum and its derivatives, an alternative that is renewable, that any country can have, and, most of all, that is more environmentally correct." He went on to say that the model developed in Brazil "is a model that the entire world is observing with curiosity" and has become "the grand project of developing countries."

Translation: David Silberstein