Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply - Embrapa

Creation of Embrapa Agroenergy
The purpose of the Brazilian Agroenergy Plan is to organize and
develop a technology research, development, innovation, and transfer
program that guarantees agroenergy chains sustainability and
competitiveness. The Brazilian Agroenergy Plan also provides for
institutional arrangements to structure research, such as the creation of a
new Embrapa unit, Embrapa Agroenergy.
The execution of the National Agroenergy Plan requires multidisciplinary
technical teams organized into scientific networks, organizational and strategic
partnerships, together with the mobilization of skills, entrepreneurship, training,
and guaranteed funding.
From the temporal standpoint, the PD&I and TT program must encompass
short-, medium- and long-term goals. Geographically, the program must take into
account the various ecosystems and environments in the country. The
environmental interface of the technologies to be development must comply with
the principles of environmental protection and lessened environmental damage.
From the social point of view, the program must consider the need to increase job
and income opportunities and to improve their distribution. In the disciplinary
dimension, the program will deal with the entire production chain and focus on the
development of agronomic technology, transformation and commercialization
processes, as well as agricultural and agro-industrial coproducts, byproducts,
wastes, and residues, while complying rigorously with all standards and
regulations.
Considering the current conditions of the economy, state-of-the-art
knowledge of the Brazilian agribusiness and possibility of producing energy
from renewable sources of biomass, it is absolutely necessary to strengthen
and consolidate the research, development and innovation components of
the National Agroenergy Plan in order to examine and enable the alternatives
opening before the country with the implementation of the Plan.
The National Agroenergy Plan must necessarily encompass the entire
country since much progress has already been made in some regions (Center-
South) and with some products (sugarcane and soybean, for example) of the
Brazilian agribusiness. Among the challenges to be faced is the need for more
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