Did you know?

DID YOU KNOW?

Did you know that around 4% of pesticides used in Brazilian agriculture are bioinputs – and that this percentage increases by 50% every year?

Launched in 2020, Brazil’s National Bioinputs Program (Programa Nacional de Bioinsumos) aims to expand and strengthen the use of these products, which can also be processes or technologies of animal, plant or microbial origin. Bioinputs are mostly of biological and natural origin, and they help reduce dependence on pesticides and chemical fertilizers in Brazilian crops, as well as the burden on the environment.

More than 560 biological products have already been registered in Brazil, over half of them in the last three years alone – demonstrating a strong tendency towards increasing use of bioinputs in crops.

Brazil’s Crop Plan offers funding to encourage implementation of bioinput and biofertilizer production units on rural properties, for their own use, thus reducing production costs and the cost of food.

• About 4% of all products used to control pests and diseases in Brazil are bioinputs
• 21% of Brazil’s soybean producers, which is the grain with the highest volume of production in the country, use bioinputs to control pests and diseases. It is estimated that this percentage will reach 70%
• Sugarcane is a leading consumer of bioinputs. Of the more than 8.1 million hectares of plantation, 3.6 million of them are protected by natural products. This corresponds to 45% of the entire sugarcane plantation area.

Did you know that Brazil is set to reduce the emission of 1 billion tons of carbon by the end of this decade?

Brazil’s ABC+ Plan - Low Carbon Agriculture (Plano ABC+ - Agricultura de Baixa Emissão de Carbono), in force between 2020 and 2030, aims to extend low-carbon technologies to over 72 million hectares of arable land, promoting productivity gains in already consolidated agricultural lands without the need to convert new areas to productive activity. In this way, emission of more than 1 billion tons of CO2 equivalent will be mitigated. 

Did you know that Brazilian agriculture is powered by science?

Over the past 50 years, Brazil has developed a model of tropical agriculture – based on research and innovation – that uniquely combines the three pillars of sustainability: the social, the economic and the environmental. Investments in the tropicalization of plant and animal varieties; in the development of production practices that are adapted to the country’s natural conditions; and in the qualification of producers have led Brazil – once a net importer of food – to become the world’s third largest exporter of food, fiber and bioenergy.

Thanks to research and to scientific progress, the tropicalization of fruit farming has made planting fruit such as grapes, peaches, plums, nectarines, apples and pears – typical of cooler countries – possible in warmer or more temperate climates, for example. 

Located in the middle of the Brazilian Northeast’s dry hinterland, between the states of Bahia and Pernambuco, the São Francisco Valley has been transformed, and may one day become one of Brazil’s most important wine-producing regions. Around 90% of the country's grape and mango exports leave the irrigated lands of the São Francisco Valley for tables in Europe and the US.

Did you know that rural producers are also water producers?

When soil is well managed by agriculture, rainwater filters into it and replenishes groundwater. The Brazilian Forest Code, one of the world’s strictest environmental laws, obliges springs and water courses to be preserved. As well as this legal obligation, however, the Brazilian government encourages practices for soil and water conservation. Water and soil are inseparable, and essential to agriculture.

FSHEET 2 - DID YOU KNOW?

Did you know that Brazil was unanimously chosen to host the G20 Clean Energy Ministerial Meeting in 2024?

The advances achieved by Brazil over the decades have placed the country in a leading position in the production of clean energy. These achievements led Brazil to be chosen to host the 15th Ministerial Meeting on Clean Energy and the 9th Ministerial Meeting of the “Innovation Mission”. The events will be held in Foz do Iguaçu (PR) at the Itaipu Binacional hydroelectric plant. The company was selected for being one of the largest generators of clean energy in the world.

FSHEET 1 – DID YOU KNOW?

Did you know that Brazil has one of the greatest biodiversity in the world?

- Globally, Brazil has the largest reserve of fresh water in the world. It is estimated that the country has about 12% of the planet's freshwater availability, distributed in 12 hydrographic regions. It is more than the entire European or African continent, for example, which holds 7% and 10%, respectively 

- The Amazon biome is the largest in the country, covering the entire North region and part of the Northeast and Midwest regions 

- The Amazon is home to more than 30,000 species of plants, 300 species of mammals and more than 1,300 species of birds

- One of the largest freshwater fish in the world is from the Amazon: the arapaima can exceed 3 meters and 200 kilos  

Did you know that millions of people live in the Amazon and help to conserve it? 

- The Amazon is not empty at all: 38 million Brazilians live in the region 

- It is one of the nations that most preserves the environment and its forests in all of Brazil, conserving more than 60% of its native vegetation, when all its biomes are added together. Three times that of any other nation with a similar territorial extension  

Did you know that 84% of the electricity used by Brazil comes from renewable sources? 

- In 2021, in the midst of a pandemic, Brazil broke records for installing solar and wind energy sources

- Brazil was the 1st country in the world to implement actions to reduce methane emissions after the global commitment made at COP 26 

Did you know that Brazil recycled almost 99% of the production of aluminum cans in 2021? 

- Brazil recycled about 33 billion aluminum cans in 2021 

- More than 800 thousand people who live from recycling in Brazil 

- All these people will be able to benefit from the Recycling Credit Certificate, Recicla+, which will help both recyclable collectors and companies required to recycle. 

- The system works with proof of the correct disposal of waste, with an invoice for the sale of material collected by collectors and/or cooperatives, and companies can buy the right associated with this destination, thus fulfilling their obligation with reverse logistics

Did you know that, in less than a year, Brazil reduced deforestation in an area the size of Aracaju?

Between August 2021 and July 2022, Brazil’s total illegally deforested area decreased by 2.16%: around 190 square kilometers. This preserved area is equivalent in size to the state of Sergipe’s capital city, Aracaju. Coordinated by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, Operation Guardians of the Biome intensified monitoring and focused on combating deforestation across Brazil.

Did you know that, every month, over 6,000 servers fight forest fires all over Brazil? 

Every month, Brazil employs over 6,000 people in fighting forest fires. Operation Guardians of the Biome’s Forest and Man-Made Fire Combat front harbors a staff of 1,250 combatants per month within Brazilian states; 1,800 National Public Security Force agents; and over 3,000 firefighters from the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation and PrevFogo, which belongs to the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources.

Did you know that five of Brazil’s six biomes are especially prone to forest fires? 

The risk of man-made fire is high in five of Brazil’s six biomes: the Amazon, the Caatinga, the Cerrado, the Atlantic Forest and the Pantanal. Only the Pampa region, in the South, does not require any specialized action by Operation Guardians of the Biome. This year, the task force is on constant alert in 15 states across the North, Northeast, Midwest and Southeast regions: Acre, Amazonas, Amapá, Bahia, Goiás, Espírito Santo, Maranhão, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Pará, Piauí, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins.

Did you know that Brazil reached a historic milestone in the distribution of electricity to the population of the Amazon and rural areas of the country?

- In August, 17 million people living in remote areas of the Amazon and in rural areas had access to electricity

- In June 2022, the Federal Government extended programs that aim to universalize access to electricity for all Brazilians

- The priority is to benefit low-income families or participants in federal social development programs, rural settlements, indigenous communities and quilombola territories

- The initiatives also include service to schools, health centers and community water wells, as well as families living in conservation units

Did you know that, in two years, about 32,000 people in the Amazon have benefited from electricity?

- The Mais Luz para Amazônia program, from 2020 to August 2022, has already served 8,087 consumer units with the public electricity service in remote regions of the Legal Amazon

- In all, 32 thousand people were benefited

- The initiative was created to ensure the social and economic development of communities in the Amazon region, also aiming at promoting financial activities and family income