INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP CONNECTS STARTUPS, RESEARCHERS AND FARMERS TO LEVERAGE INNOVATION FOR SUSTAINABLE FARMING
With For Farmers on board, the Sustainable Soy for the Cerrado Program is expanding its potential to leverage innovations in the countryside
Startups, researchers, and farmers are coming together to discuss the pains, the challenges, and innovative solutions for sustainable agriculture in the 21st century. This is what the Sustainable Soy for the Cerrado Program (PSSC), now in its fourth cycle, is doing with a new, distinctive feature: in addition to mentorships, connections with executives, exchanges of experiences with entrepreneurs, thematic classes, and technical-scientific support by a team of researchers from the Cerrado Fellowship Program, startups in this portfolio will now be able to connect directly with ten farmers selected by the For Farmers Program.
The purpose is to exchange more experiences among different stakeholders and develop proposals to mitigate some of the biggest problems on today's sustainability agenda, such as deforestation and climate change. After emerging from a partnership between the innovation hub AgTech Garage and the Land Innovation Fund, with strategic support from Embrapii and the Center for Research and Development in Telecommunications (CPQD), the PSSC also has funding of around R$ 3.4 million from the Startup Finance Facility to support startups.
Learn more about the 4th cycle of PSSC
The 4th cycle of the PSSC receives proposals until the 15th of July. Register here.
The inclusion of For Farmers in the portfolio of services offered by the Sustainable Soy for the Cerrado Program meets the need for a complete innovation ecosystem to address agribusiness challenges and extend the reach of solutions on the ground. "We want to create an environment for ongoing dialogue and exchange among entrepreneurs, researchers, and producers. We believe that is how we will lay the ground to develop, test and deliver scientific, technological, and business solutions for a sustainable, deforestation-free soy production chain," says Land Innovation Fund director, Carlos E. Quintela, adding that "updates proposed throughout the four cycles of the PSSC also show our commitment to integrating innovation into our core business and using it to manage and implement our processes and programs".
The farmers selected to participate in For Farmers will join the Sustainable Soy for the Cerrado Program as potential early adopters (adopters of solutions being developed or tested), mentors, and evaluators of the proposals, to ensure that the needs of people inside the farm gates are considered in the course of the projects. Focused on farmers, using the theme of sustainable soy supply chains that are deforestation-free, with no conversion of native vegetation, For Farmers facilitates the adoption of new technologies in the field, and generates both cooperation and business opportunities linking farmers and technology startups.
"AgTech Garage created the For Farmers Program to hear farmers about their challenges and connect them with the best startups in agribusiness, in a learning and collaborative win-win relationship both for farmers, who gain access to cutting-edge technologies selected with the hub's expertise, and for startups, now enabled to test and implement their solutions in the field," explains AgTech Garage's co-founder and CEO, José Tomé. "The unprecedented intersecting of For Farmers with the Cerrado Fellowship, plus the financial contribution of the Startup Finance Facility, puts the Sustainable Soy for the Cerrado Program on the frontier of innovation in this entrepreneurial ecosystem," he adds.
"We want to create an environment for ongoing dialogue and exchange among entrepreneurs, researchers, and producers. We believe that is how we will lay the ground to develop, test and deliver scientific, technological, and business solutions for a sustainable, deforestation-free soy production chain," says Land Innovation Fund director, Carlos E. Quintela, adding that "updates proposed throughout the four cycles of the PSSC also show our commitment to integrating innovation into our core business and using it to manage and implement our processes and programs".
THE PSSC:
The startups selected for the Sustainable Soy for the Cerrado Program participate in an Experience Day, where they gain access to strategic and technical mentoring, connect with executives from the AgTech Garage community, exchange experiences with entrepreneurs, participate in events and workshops with professionals from the private sector, and are monitored by a team of expert members of partner companies, all focused on developing and scaling up solutions aligned with the Land Innovation Fund's objectives of fostering sustainability in the soy supply chain. PSSC members also participate in master classes and get technical and scientific support from a team of researchers selected for the Cerrado Fellowship Program.
At the end of the cycle, upon analysis by an advisory board, outstanding startups may receive financial support from the Startup Finance Facility to further develop their solutions. With resources from the Land Innovation Fund and expertise from the AgTech Garage, this pioneering initiative to manage and promote innovation solutions has R$3.4 million available to support such solutions. In the first three cycles, the PSSC selected the following fifteen startups whose solutions cover environmental monitoring, soil treatment, ecological restoration, traceability, and carbon quantification: Adapta, Agrorobotica, AgTrace, Brain Agriculture, BrCarbon, Busca Terra, Connect Farm, Forestmatic, Green Bug, Maneje Bem, Plantem, Safe Trace, SciCrop, Quiron Digital and One and a Half Degrees.