Xinhua News Agency, Sinop, Brazil, October 19th – Reporter’s Notes | How a project from a Chinese enterprise can increase production and protect the environment on Brazilian farms
Recently, brothers Igor and Ivan Biancon stood on their own farm, watching as the freshly harvested cotton from the field was transported by large trucks to the processing plant, while the soybeans planted 10 days ago in the field had already grown small seedlings. They were a bit incredulous that this land, which had degraded due to overgrazing a few years ago, had already begun to generate income.
At the end of the last century, the Biancon brothers came with their families to the vicinity of Sinop, Mato Grosso state, to plant soybeans and raise beef cattle. Later, as food prices skyrocketed, the two brothers wanted to seize the opportunity to increase production of crops such as soybeans and corn. However, many of the land lacked fertility and could not be cultivated. When they were seeking loans from banks they had been cooperating with to develop new farmland, they were recommended for the REVERTE project of Sinochem Syngenta Group in China. This project does not require the development of new land, but rather the redevelopment of old plots. Thus, they became the first Brazilian farmer to join the REVERTE project.
The REVERTE project is a land restoration plan initiated by Syngenta Group and the Nature Conservancy in 2019, initially tailored for the Cerradu region of Brazil and later expanded to more areas. The Seladu region is famous for its sparse savanna landscape, but the increasing demand for food has led to an increase in arable land, causing many farmers to illegally cut down trees. The goal of this project is to enable Brazilian farmers to benefit from the process of restoring degraded land while expanding their production scale, and to avoid deforestation. As long as farmers follow the corresponding social and environmental standards, they can apply for credit lines from the cooperative financial institution Itau BBA Bank.
Gabriel Mora, Sustainable Development Coordinator of Syngenta Group, introduced that the REVERTE project analyzes the specific situation of each participating farmer’s land and develops improvement plans suitable for the farm land.
For example, during the improvement process of the land at Biancon Farm, both organic fertilizers such as straw and some chemical fertilizers were added. Before 2020, Biancon Farm only had a total of 14000 hectares of arable land. Now, the farm can grow 24000 hectares of soybeans, 11000 hectares of beans, and 10000 hectares of cotton in two harvest seasons, with a arable area of 45000 hectares. At the same time, there are more than 7000 cows on the farm.
In order to motivate more farmers to join the project, Syngenta Group not only provides digital tools to help real-time grasp the condition of farmland, but also collaborates with banks to provide credit services for farmers for up to 10 years.
JNC Farm, located over 300 kilometers from the Biancon Brothers Farm, covers an area of nearly 90000 hectares and extensively cultivates soybeans, cotton, and corn. It is the largest farm participating in the REVERTE project. They use digital tools for management, making farming and production easier and more controllable.
At JNC Farm, when sowing soybeans, the density and depth of seed sowing are already inputted into the program of the seeder in advance. The staff can monitor the sown plots in the cockpit of the seeder, and all activities of the seeder can also be monitored in real time on the computer screen of the farm headquarters. In addition, the headquarters can promptly detect fires, avoid the formation of fires, timely grasp weather conditions, and formulate response measures.
The plot of land participating in the REVERTE project at JNC Farm adopts a semi annual grazing and semi annual soybean planting method. That is, the farmland is planted with grass after soybean harvest, and the cattle can eat more nutritious grass. Afterwards, the cattle are driven to other plots where soybeans are sown. This ensures that the livestock have fresh grass and prevents continuous grazing from causing land degradation.
Another key aspect of the REVERTE project is that the prerequisite for obtaining these digital tools and loans is to comply with local environmental requirements. Farms must first comply with Brazil’s forest laws, which require a certain proportion of native vegetation to be retained in the total area of the farm, and the cultivated or grazed area must not encroach on forest land.
JNC Farm Technical Director Elson Stevis led reporters to visit the compound planting project on the farm, which involves cultivating some plants unique to the Cerradu region or the Amazon rainforest in the nursery, and replanting these saplings on degraded land. Especially, trees are planted around 46 water sources near the farm, which ensures the continuous flow of water sources throughout the year and guarantees irrigation water.
Petra Lowe, Chief Sustainability Officer of Syngenta Group, said that nowadays it is possible to produce more food and protect the environment simultaneously. The REVERTE project allows Brazilian farmers to adopt this method of restoring degraded land when seeking to expand production, rather than cutting down large amounts of native vegetation.
At present, the REVERTE project has 394 contracted farms in Brazil, participating in the restoration of nearly 280000 hectares of land. Saswato, Chief Communications Officer of Syngenta Group, stated that only by promoting green growth and achieving a balance between agricultural production and ecological protection, can the future of agriculture truly achieve sustainable development and create a more efficient, safe, and green agricultural supply chain for consumers.