International partnership seeks startups offering sustainable agricultural solutions for the Cerrado
3rd cycle of the Sustainable Soy for the Cerrado Program seeks initiatives to create value by conserving native vegetation on the region's farms.
Applications for the 3rd cycle of the "Sustainable Soy for the Cerrado Program – fostering entrepreneurship and innovation for deforestation-free farming" will be accepted from Wednesday, January 19th through February 9th. After ten start-ups were selected out of 122 candidates for the program’s first year, the third cycle will prioritize proposals adding value to native plant cover conserved on farms in the Cerrado region. The program grew out of a partnership between the Land Innovation Fund and AgTech Garage, with strategic support from EMBRAPII – the Brazilian Company for Industrial Research and Innovation – with initial funding of about R$2.2 million to support start-ups, a figure that may grow with the entry of new partners interested in supporting innovative ecosystems for sustainable agribusiness.
Subscriptions for the Programa at the “Sustainable Soy for the Cerrado” webpage.
A biome occupying 22% of Brazil’s territory, the Cerrado lost 8,351 km2 of native vegetation from August 2020 to July 2021, an area five and a half times the size of the city of São Paulo, according to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). That 7.9% increase, compared to the same period a year earlier, was the biome's largest loss since 2015. Its combination of fertile land, water resources, and flat relief gives the Cerrado – especially the Matopiba, an agricultural frontier overlapping the states of Maranhão, Piauí, Tocantins, and Western Bahia – great potential for agribusiness, particularly grain crops, highlighting the need for innovative solutions to promote sustainable agricultural development. "More than ever, we must care for the land to reap economic and socio-environmental benefits, and to convince more people that innovation can be an ally of agriculture in the quest for synergies between yields and sustainability," says Carlos E. Quintela, director of the Land Innovation Fund.
To expand its portfolio of innovative solutions, the 3rd cycle of the Sustainable Soy for the Cerrado Program (“PSSC”) is open for initiatives that help conserve, restore, or expand areas of native vegetation in the soy production chain, through financial mechanisms that produce revenue from standing forests, solutions that reduce deforestation and its indirect risks, develop environmental services (carbon and water), sustainable land use, and soil monitoring tools. The Program aims to draw the agro 4.0 world closer to environment issues, stimulating new technologies to foster sustainability by preserving natural resources and restoring green areas throughout the Cerrado’s soy production chain. "We want new initiatives to complement projects supported by the 1st and 2nd cycles, to build a set of sustainable solutions of interest to the entire farm – from cultivated areas to standing forests," adds Carlos E. Quintela, director of the Land Innovation Fund.
"We want new initiatives to complement projects supported by the 1st and 2nd cycles, to build a set of sustainable solutions of interest to the entire farm – from cultivated areas to standing forests," adds Carlos E. Quintela, director of the Land Innovation Fund.
The start-ups selected for the Sustainable Soy in the Cerrado Program participate in an Experience Day, with access to strategic and technical mentoring, connections with executives from the AgTech Garage community, an exchange of experiences with entrepreneurs, events and workshops with professionals from the private sector and monitoring by a team of experts from partner companies, focused on developing and scaling up solutions that will help achieve the Land Innovation Fund's objective of fostering sustainability along the soy supply chain. Successful PSSC candidates also participate in master classes and get technical-scientific support from a team of researchers selected for the Matopiba Fellowship Program.
"By interfacing two programs, AgTech Garage offers all its expertise and potential connections in the innovation ecosystem to entrepreneurs and researchers interested in working in synergy as part of a quest for sustainable agricultural development," says José Tomé, co-founder and CEO of AgTech Garage. "Aligned with our purpose of 'nurturing entrepreneurs who will nurture the world', we draw in and work with new entrepreneurs and start-ups, to enhance the outcomes of this project," adds Tomé.
At the end of the cycle, after analysis by an advisory board, outstanding start-ups may receive financial support from the Start-up Finance Facility to implement their solutions. With funding from the Land Innovation Fund and expertise from the AgTech Garage, this unprecedented initiative to manage and promote innovative solutions has R$2.2 million available to develop solutions. So far, three proposals have been selected to receive financial support: HyperT, an integrated traceability, monitoring, and carbon credit platform presented by AgTrace, BrCarbon, BrainAg, and One and a Half Degrees; Carbon Stock in Western Bahia, a project by start-up Agrorobótica to analyze different soil scenarios in a region with one of the country's highest agricultural yields; and Protege Cerrado, a carbon offset initiative to encourage environmental conservation and restoration, by startups Plantem and Forestmatic.
More information about the Startup Finance Facility here.
In its role of bridging start-ups and entrepreneurs with research centers offering state-of-the-art infrastructure and technical expertise to develop the selected projects, EMBRAPII will also be able to offer grants for technological solutions, based on its own criteria. "Innovation and sustainability are strategic agendas for Brazilian agribusiness, which can count on support from EMBRAPII units to overcome technological challenges. Interaction by large companies with the cutting-edge knowledge of start-ups can also generate new levels of innovation in the field," says Igor Nazareth, director of planning and institutional relations at EMBRAPII. Such synergistic initiatives will foster the development of sustainable technologies throughout the soy supply chain, reducing the crop’s environmental impacts and aligning the production of one of Brazil's main commodities with international demands for the preservation and restoration of the Cerrado biome.
During its first two cycles, the PSSC selected ten startups with solutions ranging from environmental monitoring to soil treatment, as well as ecological restoration, traceability, and carbon quantification. They are: Agrorobotics, AgTrace, Brain Agriculture, BrCarbon, Forestmatic, Plantem, Safe Traces, SciCrop, Quiron Digital and One and a half degrees.
For more details about the “Sustainable Soy in Cerrado”, applications, and the selection process, please visit the Program’s landing page:
AgTech Garage is an innovation hub specialized in agribusiness. Founded in 2017, it now has over 60 major partner companies, leaders in their segments, and over 900 connected startups in its virtual community. As a pioneer in fostering open innovation in agribusiness, its initiatives, practices, and tools have boosted its partners' competitiveness through novel products and services for an increasingly digital and sustainable agri-food chain.
The Brazilian Research and Innovation Company (EMBRAPII) is a social organization that supports technological research institutions promoting innovation in Brazilian industry. EMBRAPII cooperates with public and private scientific and technological research institutions, focused on business demands and aimed at risk-sharing in the pre-competitive phase of innovation. Its objective is to stimulate the industrial sector to undertake more innovation, with more technology, and to enhance companies' competitive strengths in both domestic and international markets.
About the Land Innovation Fund:
Founded with an initial contribution from Cargill and managed by Chemonics International, the Land Innovation Fund supports innovation for a sustainable and deforestation-free soy production chain with positive economic and socio-environmental impacts, in three of South America's priority biomes: Cerrado, Gran Chaco and Amazon. It supports innovations that increase yields through sustainable practices, mechanisms, and approaches, encourages farmers to conserve and restore native forests and vegetation, and mobilizes networks and resources to transform the soy supply chain.