Interview: Dr. Pedro Arraes Pereira, President of Embrapa

Dr. Pedro Arraes Pereira

IFPRI Forum talks with Dr. Pedro Arraes Pereira about the future of agriculture, biotechnology, and climate change in developing countries.

FORUM: Embrapa is a highly respected institution. What have been some of the factors that have made it so successful? How has Embrapa’s research benefitted small farmers?

Arraes: Embrapa was created in 1973 to meet the major challenges of promoting, stimulating, coordinating, and executing agricultural research activities across the whole of the national territory with the aim of producing knowledge and technology to be put at the service of the nation’s producers. It started as a department in the Ministry of Agriculture, and then became a public corporation with the agility necessary to lead a real revolution in the incipient Brazilian agricultural research system. In fact, one of the primary factors that allowed it to head up this scientific and technological revolution was brought about to a large extent by the generation of knowledge and activities arising from the National Agricultural Research System (Sistema Nacional de Pesquisa Agrícola, SNPA), initially coordinated by Embrapa.

This arrangement, which involved State Agricultural Research Organizations (Organizações Estaduais de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Oepas), universities, and other similar institutions, made possible the incorporation of innovations that guaranteed that giant steps forward could be taken in matters of agricultural quality and productivity, and the supply of food and producer goods to the growing urban population and the industrial sector, which was a significant factor in moving Brazilian agriculture forward into an outstanding position in the Brazilian economic and social development process.

IFPRI Weather-Securities Proposal Wins $100,000 Grant

Miguel Robles from MTID (front center) leads a group exercise involving weather securities in Ethiopia.

Ruth Vargas Hill and Miguel Robles, research fellows in IFPRI’s Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division, recently won a grant competition at the Marketplace on Innovative Financial Solutions for Development conference in Paris. Hill and Robles’s proposal on weather securities for rain-dependent Ethiopian farmers was selected from among 800 applicants as one of the five winners to receive a $100,000 pilot grant.

The Marketplace conference and competition focused on improving the use and channeling of development funds through innovative mechanisms; it was co-hosted by the Agence Française de Développement, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Bank. The grant competition called for cutting-edge financial solutions to concrete development problems that could be scaled-up and replicated broadly.

“Weather Securities: Reducing Risk for Farmers,” Hill and Robles’s winning proposal, describes a system of simple weather securities with fixed payments created to protect rural farmers against the risk of erratic rainfall and drought. Farmers, traders, and others whose income is affected by drought purchase weather securities (or, tickets) that pay out based on objective cut-offs of reduced rainfall. The securities are not limited to particular crops but rather are designed around multiple crop needs. The system is simpler, more flexible, and more inclusive than traditional index-based weather insurance policies, which are designed for specific crops. While the project currently targets farmers in Ethiopia—in collaboration with Ethiopian-based Nyala Insurance S.C.—it can be expanded to benefit millions of other rain-dependent farmers.