Honor the effort to revive Bzazil agriculture

For the first time in its 20-year history, the World Food Prize, known as the ' Nobel Prize for Agriculture ', was awarded to three agronomists: Andrew Colin McClung (83 years old - USA), Alysson Paolinelli (70 age - Brazil) and Edson Lobato (66 years - Brazil) for their great contribution to the renovation of the arid Cerrado plateau in Central Brazil into a high-yielding farming area, creating a breakthrough for the agricultural sector This country has been working for over 50 years. The awards ceremony took place in Iowa State (USA) on October 19.

Since the 1950s, Dr. Andrew McClung working at Northern Caro lina University has studied methods of nutrient supplementation for soil, neutralizing aluminum in soil due to high acid content. He demonstrated by liming, some micronutrients and fertilizers, degraded soils that it was impossible to grow crops due to aluminum and acid contamination like Cerrado, which could produce more crops and agricultural crops than 200 -300 times compared to when not yet renovated.

It was not until the 1970s that the Cerrado plateau had a history of millions of years of 120 million hectares without roads or receiving the attention of the government to turn it into a farming area. The Cerrado credit assistance program for farmers was only started after agronomist engineer Alysson Paolinelli was appointed to lead the Minas Gerais state agriculture sector. He proactively launched a model of new rural development, infrastructure construction, encouraging people to participate in land improvement, cultivation and husbandry on Cerrado.

(Photo: worldfoodprize.org)

Thanks to the tireless efforts still maintained after he became Brazilian Agriculture Minister in 1974, the desert gradually turned into an agricultural area with countless farms. He was also the initiator of the Cerrado Center under the Brazilian Agricultural Research Organization (EMBRAPA, also founded by him) to concentrate resources on agricultural development in Cerrado.

Following McClung and Paolinelli steps, the soil manager Edson Lobato is constantly researching to increase the fertility of Cerrado soil. For 30 years working for EMBRAPA, Lobato has come up with a number of methods to increase soil quality, increase crop yields and author more than 80 books on the development of Cerrado.

The Dr. Norman E.Borlaug Nobel Prize-winning doctor - the ' father ' of the green revolution in agriculture, the founder of the World Food Prize - called the development of Cerrado ' one of the achievements The greatness of the agricultural sector in the 20th century, has transformed wasteland into one of the world's most productive agricultural regions . ' The area of ​​cultivated land in Cerrado from 200,000 hectares in 1955 to now has increased to more than 40 million hectares, contributing to the Brazilian agricultural output tripled in the 1970-2000 period. Brazil is currently the world's second largest producer of soybeans, which has increased production by 20 times since the development of Cerrado and contributes $ 9 billion to the economy each year. Brazil's Spring 2006 harvest output reached 55 million tons, of which Cerrado accounted for 54%.

According to the Chairman of the World Food Prize, former US ambassador Kenneth Quinn, although working independently at different times, all three winners won the same direction to turn dry land into fertility, so they were worthy. rewarding. The model of effective improvement of Cerrado is considered typical, being replicated in many countries, contributing to increasing food production and reducing world poverty.

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According to Truthabouttrade, Worldfoodprize, DesMoinesNew, Can Tho Newspaper