b'we imported beef from Europe, wemore, while pre-imported milk from the U.S., we importedserving the means beans from Mexico. We do so much morefor doing it. To get right here at home now. The importancethat better yield of investments in science, technology andwe need an innovation through public universities andagricultural the private sector are transforming Brazilsystem to become one of the agricultural power- produc-houses in the world, he said. tion system Three pillars are responsible for thisthat bal-transformation, he said. The first pillar wasances three the transformation of poor acidic soilsrequirements, into fertile land. The second pillar wasRodrigues went adapting plants and animals to tropicalon to say.conditions. The first is We brought soybean from China,improved food secu-we introduced soybean in southeasternrity and food safety. The Brazil, and then through breeding, geneticsecond is ensuring minimal improvement and adaptation now we areimpact on the environment and growing soybean above the equator, hethe climate in what we do. The third is said.providing the basic conditions for proper The third pillar was the developmentlivelihood and health for all the actors in of a sustainable platform of agriculturalthe value chain. These are the three well practices in Brazil like no-till. known elements of sustainable agricul-Bayer Crop Sciences Latin Americature.president Mauricio Rodrigues offeredA good social safety net is vital for the three pillars of his own that will be neededfuture of agriculture, he emphasized.to continue the regions agriculturalIts a global challenge that nobody revolutioninnovation, sustainability andcan address alone. We have to tackle it digital transformation. together. Cooperation is key, but its not We invest a lot of money globally always easy. It requires a large portion of roughly around couple billion euros on ancommitment and also a large portion of annual basisin trying to offer productscompromise. It requires an understand-both in terms of seeds and traits and croping that the common good most of the protection. We have a lot of investmentstime takes precedence over individual coming to the region, he said. interest, no matter how difficult it is. Those investments include digital agSWplatforms and a new partnership with Embrapa focused on fixing carbon in the soil, which has been launched as a pilot project with a couple of thousand growers.Such investments are making Latin America a key player in the production of food for the world.The conditions in our region allow for more than one production cycle. At the same time, every single year we lose 30% of the product we produce mainly because of poor infrastructure or subop-timal value chains. We have to produce SEED ASSOCIATION OF THE AMERICAS 2022SEEDWORLD.COM /7'