Green connections bring the farms closer to the innovation ecosystem

With the “For Farmers”, rural producers add knowledge and value to innovative solutions deployed by startups in the Sustainable Soy in the Cerrado Program.

Photo: Barbosa’s Farm, state of Maranhão, Brazil. Credit: Luis Devicari’s archive.

Born in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, geographer Luís Fernando Devicari and his wife, veterinarian Viviana Barbosa, arrived in eastern Maranhão in 2010 to work on the family farm in municipality of Brejo. Through hard work and partnerships with universities and research centers such as Embrapa, they turned a soybean monoculture into an integrated crop-livestock-forestry (ICLF) system, with a yield gain of 7.8 bags of grain per hectare.

As the second generation of a farming family who moved to Mato Grosso 43 years ago, agronomist Ligia Pedrini has closely followed the expansion of the agricultural frontier and the consolidation of soy crops in the state. In Diamantino (MT), she manages a family farm that seems to go against the market, with only 150 hectares of crops and over 1400 hectares of legal reserve and permanent preservation areas.

With different profiles and backgrounds, Ligia and Luis share an interest in finding innovative solutions and financial tools to develop their farms sustainably. They are two of the 22 active growers in For Farmers, one of the modules of the Sustainable Soy in the Cerrado Program (PSSC), a unique initiative that brings together a variety of players in this innovation ecosystem to exchange ideas and build solutions for a biome that produces more than 50% of Brazil's grain crops.

As a partnership between the Land Innovation Fund and PwC AgTech Innovation, with support from Cargill, CPQD, Embrapa and Embrapii, the PSSC brings farmers and researchers together to discuss innovation and broaden the diversity of voices, concepts and ideas involved in developing solutions. The initiative has also put the challenges of global climate and environmental agendas on the table.

In addition to the 22 farmers, 34 startups and 37 researchers took part in the program's six cycles.“For Farmers joined the PSSC as the program evolved and we identified the need to bring new players, information and viewpoints into the sustainability dialogue. With each cycle, a greater variety of farmers has joined the program, broadening our discussions and the disruptive potential of innovation in the countryside,” explains Aline Amorim, PwC's Senior Associate and project leader.

During the program, farmers attend events and meetings with entrepreneurs and experts from a wide spectrum of agribusiness sectors, and gain access to the portfolio of solutions developed by the startups. They take part in round table discussions, make suggestions for emerging projects, and open their farms for tests or pilot trials of the solutions they consider relevant to their respective farms.

The 22 farmers who have already gone through the PSSC work on 125,000 hectares in seven states in the Cerrado biome. Since the program began, ten solutions from the program's portfolio have been tested at different stages of development, on topics ranging from climate monitoring to soil analysis, carbon and biodiversity, as well as traceability and management systems that connect conservation and production, on around 91,000 hectares.

“We know farmers are the keys to changing agriculture in the 21st century. They are the ones who best understand the needs and challenges of their business, with the decision-making power to adopt solutions and services,” says Ashley Valle, director of the Land Innovation Fund. “With the PSSC,” she adds, “we create a real innovation landscape with potential to gain scale and make a difference in the field.”.

In addition to testing new solutions and gaining access to cutting-edge research endorsed by institutions and universities, the startups’ initiatives help farmers measure and assess the results of good agricultural practices in the field. “We are sustainable. It's very important to have data, to be able to prove that I'm doing the right thing and trying to do it better every day,” says Ligia Pedrini.

Another benefit from the exchange between entrepreneurs and farmers is the ability to enable innovation in the field. “The PSSC has showed us that innovation can only lead to transformation when it is aligned with farmers' needs. We must hear them, to be able to understand how to turn innovation into a driving force for action in the countryside,” adds Ashley Valle.

“The PSSC has showed us that innovation can only lead to transformation when it is aligned with farmers' needs. We must hear them, to be able to understand how to turn innovation into a driving force for action in the countryside”, says the director of the Land Innovation Fund, Ashley Valle.

A call for dialog and active participation:

Luís Devicari and Ligia Pedrini came into the PSSC from different paths: Ligia was invited by PwC to participate in the program because of her leadership in the new generation of farmers. Besides being an agronomist and farmer, Ligia is also a content creator and has almost 100,000 followers on Instagram, where she shares day-to-day information about running a farm in the Cerrado. Despite her ongoing exchanges with audiences on electronic media, she had never taken part in an innovation program.

Luís came into For Farmers through Embrapa. The Barbosa family farm is one of the research center's pilot units, recognized in the region for its excellence in integrated systems. With a master's degree in geography and experience in soil conservation, he has always pursued partnerships with universities to understand and improve specific features of farming in the Cerrado. Luís had made many connections since coming to the farm, but he had never worked with startups.

Before joining the PSSC, both farmers believed that innovation was a distant, difficult or costly dream, hardly feasible for day-to-day life in the field. “We live in a poor region, far from everything, with little access to information. Participating in the program has given us access to cutting-edge research being developed, tested or implemented,” explains Luís Devicari.

For Ligia Pedrini, the experience has been surprising and enriching. “I was so happy to take part in it. The selected startups really managed to design the project as something concrete and affordable. I was able to demystify a lot of things and be in touch with some great ideas. It's really possible to carry out interesting and innovative projects,” she says.

Pequi and baru trees as complementary crops in Mato Grosso:

Photo: Cerrado’s biome in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Credit: Ligia Pedrini archive. 

Ligia Pedrini's family bought the farm in Diamantino, Mato Grosso, in 2014, but only really started working on it in 2017.  For 40 years, the farm had belonged to a cattle rancher who rarely visited the region. There was no farmhouse, no caretaker and no professionals to look after the land or the animals.

Since college, Ligia has had a special interest in solutions to enhance soil health and the potential of good agricultural practices. That's why the B4A startup initiative soon drew her attention with its proposal to map, detect and prescribe regenerative management and treatment approaches for the Cerrado.

Ligia Pedrini. Credit: Ligia Pedrini archive. 

Ligia herself collected soil samples on the farm for the start-up to evaluate, and filled in a form describing the farm's conditions and operations. “We've already received the initial general report with the farm's soil profile, and now we’re waiting for the management recommendations,” she says.

With Bio2Me, she saw a chance to reduce the farm's maintenance costs by turning the conserved area into a valuable environmental asset. “Keeping more than 1,400 hectares of land preserved comes at a high cost. We pay taxes to maintain the area, we invest in firebreaks, roads and fences. If we can monetize it, it's much better and more advantageous,” explains Ligia, adding that “I liked Bio2Me's proposal right from the startup's opening pitch.”

During the technical visit, the Bio2Me team flew a drone over the property and collected more than 20,000 aerial photos. The remote sensing images fed a vast network of data to identify species of economic interest and commercial potential for the farm. The initial survey suggested growing baru (Dipteryx alata), a tree native to the Cerrado not often found on the farm.

200 to 250 seedlings of the species are due to be planted in November, in the farm's legal reserve area. In December and January, the pequi trees (souari nut, Caryocar Brasiliense) will be harvested. Meanwhile, Bio2Me held a training workshop for pickers with a group of local residents. The purpose of the course is to teach the community how to recognize native species and gather the fruit.

The workshop is part of a broader plan to build and improve chains of bioactive compounds in the Cerrado, from nurseries for seedlings to the inclusion of local communities in the production process.  It was precisely Bio2Me's efforts to develop and implement the complex business cycle with native species that had first drawn her attention.

“Even with this wealth in our hands, it was beyond us to imagine how to create and operate such a chain, with all the risks involved. We work on tight budgets. Putting out the energy, time and money to bring this idea about is hard. Bio2Me taking on the operational work makes everything easier and more affordable. That's the startup's advantage: creating the chain, training collectors, offering an outlet for production and building scale,” explains Ligia.

Shade, nuts and professional training on a model farm in Maranhão:

Photo: Barbosa Farm. Credit: Luis Devicari archive. 

When he accepted the invitation to join the For Farmers module of the Sustainable Soy for the Cerrado Program, Luís Fernando Devicari was interested in working with startups offering soil biology solutions. But while they were still in the van from the airport in Campinas to Piracicaba, PwC's headquarters, he and his wife met the Bio2Me team and started talking about the potential and benefits of growing native species on their farm.

Having managed their Fazenda Barbosa for 14 years, the couple had already introduced a forestry element to the farm eight years ago. Since then, they have rotated soy and corn crops, cattle and sheep farming, and growing exotic and native species in a planned system that prioritizes soil quality and animal welfare. The trees give the cattle shade in a region with high temperatures and let them eat better.

“Shade is so important for cattle. But we were looking for an alternative to eucalyptus,” explains Luís. Bio2Me's proposal was to include baru trees among the native species grown on the farm. Although it is native to the Cerrado, baru is not found in the region. “The fava d'anta (Dimorphandra mollis) is native here, but it's rare. Because of the fires in the Cerrado, seeds falling to the ground don't sprout. I need a tree to replace the eucalyptus and baru looks like a good option,” he says.

As well as providing shade for the animals, the baru nuts can be a source of supplementary income for local residents. Training the community is one of the key stages to implementing Bio2Me's project. Recently, the startup held a workshop on pequi and babassu (Attalea speciosa) management for about 30 people in the region. “We have a very poor community around the farm. That's why, as well as supplying the seedlings, the startup held a technical training course for the local people. We got the leaders involved to organize it,” explains Luís.

The Fazenda Barbosa owners were also impressed by another PSSC portfolio startup called B4A. The farm already produces its own bioinputs and prioritizes agricultural practices that enhance soil health and productivity. The startup's metagenomic analyses will help them make decisions in the field and choose the bioinputs best suited to the farm's needs. “With analyses contracted for two more harvests, we'll be able to assess whether the product we used really worked,” says Luís.

The ICLF system's integrated management, crop rotation, cover crops and bioinputs to replace chemicals introduced in recent years have borne fruit and drawn the attention of agricultural researchers and professionals, leading to on-farm visits, scientific articles and academic research. “Partnerships help us. One piece of data becomes a publication and our results are confirmed,” explains Luís.

In 14 years, the ICLF system has generated an increase of 7.8 bags of soy per hectare, compared to yields on conventional farms. Animal welfare has also increased beef production by 45 kg per head. “There is no area of soil in the region with as much biological content as ours,” says Luís.

On the frontier of innovation, bringing native Cerrado trees into the integrated crop-livestock-forestry system could give Fazenda Barbosa another edge. For Luís, the European Union's ban on the sale of soy from legally or illegally deforested areas, scheduled to come into force in 2025, will tend to stimulate demand for approaches that value standing forests – such as the solution offered by Bio2Me. “There are a lot of people studying alternative forestry options for when it will be forbidden to clear new areas,” he says.

The Sustainable Soy in the Cerrado Program (PSSC):

Since its launch in March 2021, the Sustainable Soy for the Cerrado Program has received more than 320 applications from 17 Brazilian states, as well as the Federal District. In its first six cycles, 34 startups have been selected to join the program's portfolio, with solutions encompassing the entire farm, from crop areas to standing forests.

So far, 24 projects implemented by 28 of those startups have received grants from the Startup Finance Facility (SFF), a pioneering initiative to manage and promote the development, testing and deployment of innovation solutions. More than USD 480,000 in additional financial and technical-scientific matching funds have also been leveraged for these startups.