Editor’s note: This article is made possible through the sponsorship of Drummond Advisors, which recently renewed its backing of Global Atlanta’s Brazil channel. See more Brazil stories and sign up for Brazil-focused newsletters at Globalatlanta.com/Brazil.
Georgia is known for its pivotal role in the world of fintech, having become the crossroads of the payments industry in the United States over the last few decades. It’s also known as an agricultural powerhouse, growing the “five p’s” of peanuts, poultry, pecans, pine trees and peaches.
But when it comes to AgTech, the convergence of technology and the farm, Brazil has a head start, and its innovations could find fertile ground in a state that already has seen ample Brazilian agribusiness investment — with more on the way.
Already, the country has 1,500 startups working in the sector, helping farmers use artificial intelligence, carbon sequestration, remote monitoring and other technologies to drive efficiencies in farming and ranching.
Nestor Forster, Brazil’s ambassador to the United States, said during his recent visit to Atlanta that the country since the early 1990s has driven up its yield in the beef sector by more than 140 percent, while land use for its production dropped by a third. Since the 1970s, soybean output has increased by 400 percent with only 33 percent more land used for cultivation.
These gains have been made possible, the ambassador added, by research undertaken by the state-led organization Embrapa, but with all the low-hanging fruit largely picked, the next wave of innovation is likely to come through private-sector breakthroughs. Such solutions can’t come fast enough, given that boosting farmer incomes is one key way to reduce deforestation, a contributor to climate change.
Georgia will get a front-row seat to Brazil’s agtech revolution Dec. 8, when the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce Southeast and Consulate General of Brazil in Atlanta partner on a webinar featuring some of the most innovative voices in the sector, including companies like BovControl, which provides digital and data tools to help farmers monetize their carbon sequestration initiatives, agtech investor Agroven, Sao Paulo (state)-based incubator AgTech Garage and more. Forquimica, a Brazil-based provider of fertilizers with a base in south Georgia, is also on the agenda, as is export-promotion agency Apex-Brasil.
Ambassador Forster will provide opening remarks, along with Brazilian Consul General Carlos de Abreu and Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce President Lucia Jennings.
Learn more about the event (in Portuguese) and register here.
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