Reference News Network reported on November 21 (Text/Zhao Yan) The small farm of Antonio Aldo Marin, a farmer in the small town of Apodi in northeastern Brazil, mainly grows a kind of red rice. This small farm, which has been run for generations, has added new agricultural machinery such as harvesters, tractors, and drones for spraying pesticides since this year. Together with several surrounding farms, it has become a demonstration farm for China-Brazil agricultural mechanization cooperation. The Marin family has also ended the era of manual farming.

In February this year, the first batch of 31 equipment from seven Chinese agricultural machinery companies was officially delivered to the Family Agriculture Theme Chamber of the Northeastern Federation of Brazil and the Rio Grande do Norte State Government, including these machines used in the demonstration farm.

Small farmers are in urgent need of mechanization

The town of Apodi, where Marin’s farm is located, is located in the northeastern region of Brazil. The hot climate makes the family work very hard, but the income is not high. There are many similar farms in the northeast and north of Brazil, which is also the area with the largest number of poor people in Brazil.

Although Brazil is a major agricultural producer and exporter, the grain for export comes from large farms in the south and central and western regions. Therefore, agricultural machinery is mainly used in these large farms that bring foreign exchange income to the country, and there is no agricultural machinery suitable for small plots of land. In fact, 70% of Brazilians’ food comes from family farming in the northeast and north, while farmers who contribute to the Brazilian table still have a hard life.

The level of mechanization of family agriculture in Brazil is only about 12%, only about 10% in the north, and only about 3% in the Amazon region. Family farmers in the northeast of Brazil account for about 55% of all family farmers in Brazil, and only 0.2% of farmers use advanced agricultural machinery and equipment, which has an urgent need for agricultural mechanization.

Since September 2021, China Agricultural University, the International People’s Cooperation Association and relevant Brazilian parties have held many discussions and exchanges, and the Brazilian side has shown great interest in China’s small and medium-sized agricultural machinery products. In September 2022, China Agricultural University signed the “China-Brazil Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Agricultural Mechanization and Agricultural Energy” with the Northeastern Brazil Sustainable Federation, the China Agricultural Machinery Industry Association, and the International People’s Cooperation Association. With the signing of the memorandum, China Agricultural University was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology for the project “Construction of an International Transfer Platform for Advanced and Applicable Agricultural Mechanization Technologies for Small and Medium-sized Farmers in China and Brazil”.

Yang Minli, director of the China Agricultural Mechanization Development Research Center and professor of the School of Engineering at China Agricultural University, said that the China-Brazil Agricultural Mechanization Cooperation Demonstration Farm is one of the projects of this platform. Two years after the signing of the memorandum, Chinese agricultural machinery finally ran in the farmland of Brazil. These products include hand tractors, crawler tractors, modular multi-functional tractors, furrowing rotary tillers, small rice harvesters, silage corn harvesters, plant protection drones, and supporting agricultural tools (including rotary tillers, disc plows, corn planters, etc.) and solar insecticide lamps.

Later service guarantees the results of cooperation

After donating agricultural machinery, experts from China Agricultural University and engineers from agricultural machinery companies came to the demonstration farm to teach Brazilian farmers how to assemble and use machinery, conduct training on the use and operation of agricultural machinery, and adjust the machinery to better meet the needs of local farmers in combination with local rice varieties and growth conditions.

Yang Minli said that in the future, a multi-language platform for the display of industrial mechanization technology and equipment for small and medium-sized farmers in Brazil will be set up in Chinese, English, Portuguese and Spanish to help Brazilian agricultural production, promote poverty reduction for small and medium-sized farmers and rural revitalization.

Zhu Qingqiao, Chinese Ambassador to Brazil, said at the opening ceremony of the demonstration farm that Brazil is a major agricultural country, and small-scale family farming plays an important role in ensuring domestic agricultural product supply and promoting employment. The northeastern region of Brazil is relatively densely populated and has a high proportion of family farming. It is a key area for the Brazilian government to promote agricultural production and improve people’s living standards. China has strong strength in the field of agricultural machinery manufacturing, and many products are very suitable for small and medium-sized agricultural planting.

Zhu Qingqiao pointed out that this project is also a beneficial attempt by China and Brazil to promote social inclusion, eliminate hunger and poverty, and promote sustainable development, which will have a positive impact on the relationship between the two countries.

Paulo Teixeira, Minister of Agricultural Development of Brazil, expressed his gratitude to the Chinese team for coming from afar, and believed that this was “a historic day for Brazilian family farming.” He said that the Chinese team brought equipment and rich experience, and let these equipment take root here to improve Brazil’s family farming. He hoped that China would bring more agricultural equipment to Brazil’s poorest northeastern region and invest in factories in the future.

Francisco de Sousa, from Alagoa, another northeastern state, is the head of the state’s agricultural cooperative. He specially rushed to Rio Grande do Norte to participate in the demonstration farm activities. He told reporters: “We mainly grow corn, soybeans and rice there. I hope that China’s agricultural machinery can also be exported to Alagoa in the future, so that local family farming can be mechanized, improve farmers’ working conditions and increase their income.”

In July this year, China Agricultural University, the International People’s Cooperation Association, the China Machine Testing Project Team and Chinese agricultural machinery manufacturers jointly went to Maranhão State in northern Brazil to inspect the food production of family agricultural producers in the state, and analyzed and evaluated the use of Chinese agricultural machinery by local family agricultural enterprises. Through the test of Chinese agricultural machinery, both parties hope to build an agricultural machinery factory in Maranhão State in the future.

Half a year after the agricultural machinery was put into use, in order to further improve the quality of subsequent services, the Brazilian team of the International People’s Cooperation Association began to establish a comprehensive warranty resource library to integrate the warranty information of various cooperative enterprises to ensure equipment maintenance and services. Zhu Weiyan, head of the International People’s Cooperation Association, said that this cooperation does not end with donating agricultural machinery to farmers, but to continue to serve farmers so that the results of this cooperation can effectively improve the efficiency of farming, management and harvesting of small farmers in Brazil. It is also expected to continue to promote the friendly and cooperative relations between China and Brazil starting from the agricultural field.