Sowing dreams and grain
Videos series tells the story of agribusiness in Western Bahia
In the 1980s, a heavy flow of migrants drew farmers, agronomists, and entrepreneurs from the far south of Brazil to western Bahia, and then to neighboring Maranhão, Piauí, and Tocantins, a region soon to be known as Matopiba, looking for flat, plentiful, and cheap land in the heart of the Cerrado biome. Neither the acid soil nor the dearth of infrastructure or machinery kept the region from becoming one of the country's largest producers of grains, especially soybeans, and its most powerful agricultural frontier.
Cities sprang up in the wake of the farms and achieved record-breaking levels of development. The most important among them, now only 19 years old, is Luís Eduardo Magalhães. Forty years ago, the town was nothing but a stopover on the BR-242 highway, which connects the state of Bahia to Central-Western Brazil. Today, Luís Eduardo Magalhães is Bahia's agribusiness capital and, along with others like Barreiras and São Desidério, a benchmark for national grain production.
Since then, migrants raised families and set up businesses that have been passed from parents to children and grandchildren. "We grew up going to the farm. Even as children, we saw our uncles and fathers' dedication. It is much easier when there is inspiration. We nurtured a love for farming from an early age. We left for an education, and now we want to bring the innovations to the farm," explains Carolina da Cunha, speaking for the third generation of a farming family.
The Cunha family's history is one of the stories portrayed in "Agro Stories", a series of video testimonials produced by the Association of Farmers and Irrigators of Bahia (AIBA), one of the Land Innovation Fund's partners in projects that combine innovation and sustainability for responsible agricultural development in the region. Organized in five episodes – Origins, Family Succession, Agro Women, Farm Machinery, Sustainability – the videos tell individual life stories to portray an important chapter of regional agricultural development.
"Our beginnings here were in a black tarp shack. It took three years to get our first wooden shed. Back then, we had no roads; no electric power; and we had to walk 25km to take a shower, wash clothes, and bring water, that had to last until the next Sunday. To get to Barreiras, we had to hitch a 125-km ride, because we had no car", says the farmer and current president of the Association of Farmers and Irrigators of Bahia (AIBA) Odacil Ranzi, in the first video of the series.
Efforts by Odacil and many other farmers who cleared the Cerrado made soy farming the region's main economic activity in the 21st century. A study by Fundação Solidaridad, a partner of the Fund in a carbon balance project in the region, shows that soy production in Matopiba went from 5.7 million tons in 2008 to 12.8 million tons in 2019. In the Cerrado as a whole, grain production jumped from 37 million tons in 2008 to 66.8 million tons in 2019 – an increase of 80% in the Cerrado, and 125% in Matopiba.
Seeds that generate jobs and income, putting food on the tables of a growing world population, can also contribute to the conversion of native vegetation into agricultural areas, sacrificing biodiversity and raising the risk of environmental and climatic imbalance. How to reconcile the growing demand for food with environmental preservation and climate change mitigation has become one of agriculture's greatest challenges. "Sustainability has to be at the forefront of any project. With sustainability, it is possible to reconcile the environmental, social, and economic aspects", says farmer Isabel da Cunha, interviewed in the episode about family succession in Western Bahia.
Partnership with AIBA:
With responsibilities over coordinating communications activities for the four projects the Fund supports in Western Bahia, AIBA works to raise awareness among farmers and other stakeholders in the soy supply chain about the importance of innovation for agricultural sustainability.
"Initiatives supported by the Fund and carried out in partnership with major institutions have laid the groundwork for sustainability in Western Bahia, based on the tripod of territorial management, engagement, and changes in agricultural practices. As people come to realize that sustainability and innovation go hand in hand, our future harvests show promise", says Enéas Porto, AIBA's Sustainability Manager.
The Association has already produced more than 30 videos on activities and issues related to projects underway in the region. In this new "Agribusiness Stories" series, the Association highlights stories of pioneer families, their efforts to make agriculture viable in Western Bahia, the constant investments in innovation, and sustainable practices adopted by farmers.
"I see that agribusiness only works when it’s sustainable. We plan every business to last a lifetime, and much longer. The same thing goes in the field. Because we work with agribusiness, we’re directly in touch with the environment every day and need to think about sustainability all the time," says farmer Marcela Ceolin, interviewed for the episode "Women in Agribusiness".
Learn about the projects underway in the region:
Developing innovative solutions for sustainable agricultural practices is what the Land Innovation Fund's four projects in Western Bahia are all about. Implemented by three partners – the Association of Farmers and Irrigators of Bahia (AIBA), Solidaridad Foundation and Senai Cimatec – the initiatives work with diverse but complementary approaches, such as monitoring and traceability, carbon balance, online competitions for innovation and engagement of farmers.
- Innovative Solutions Laboratory | Senai Cimatec
An open innovation program in three cycles, the AIBA LAB drew more than 80 participants for 110 hours of business mentoring and 14 online meetings with experts to chart and understand the demands, challenges and opportunities of sustainable agricultural development in the region. Also, 15 startups were identified with solutions to combine innovation and sustainability for the region's needs.
- Land Use and Monitoring System | Senai Cimatec
A digital platform to manage data and economic and environmental indicators on the soy chain, the Western Bahia Territorial Intelligence and Environmental Monitoring System (SIMA) platform integrates data from multiple systems and organizes them in modules to manage water resources, carbon chains, and land use. The system will have a carbon calculator, under development by Solidaridad, to assist decision making on best agricultural practices.
- Carbon Balance | Solidaridad Fundation
Twenty farmers, whose land covers more than 100,000 hectares in five different municipalities, contributed to developing and validating a carbon calculator for soy in Western Bahia. The data will feed a comprehensive study to map carbon in different soil scenarios on soy farms in Matopiba, to be published in the second semester of 2022, and will be made available through SIMA, under development by SENAI CIMATEC.
Bahia's largest farmers' association coordinates the field and communication activities of three projects in western Bahia, two with SENAI CIMATEC's Integrated Manufacturing and Technology Center – the Innovative Solutions Laboratory and the Land Use Monitoring System – and another on Carbon Balance, with Solidaridad Brasil. AIBA helped SENAI CIMATEC promote events for the AIBA LAB open competition, contributed to the operation and validation of the SIMA modules, and ensured the involvement of farmers through Solidaridad's Carbon Balance project.