The rector of Unicamp, Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles, participated this Tuesday morning (11) in the launch of the Science Center for Development in Digital Agriculture (CCD-AD/SemeAr) program, prepared by Embrapa and reinforced the importance of projects such as the International Hub for Sustainable Development (HIDS) — which is in the process of being implemented at the University. Embrapa Digital Agriculture is located on the Unicamp campus, in Barão Geraldo.
Designed to boost the production of medium and small rural producers, the Embrapa program aims to promote connectivity in rural areas and access to digital solutions such as applications in artificial intelligence, remote sensing, automation, precision agriculture and traceability.
The expectation is that this process will result in gains in productivity and competitiveness, reduced costs and increased efficiency in agricultural production. According to the rector, HIDS was designed to be an intelligent district, which will house companies and public sector organizations, focused on the development of technological and innovation solutions, and which could play an important role in the program opened by Embrapa.
“Our HIDS project is capable of tackling everything from the agricultural production stage to the industrialization of renewable product resources”, said the rector at the launch ceremony, which was attended by the state governor, Tarcísio de Freitas, and the mayor from Campinas, Dario Saadi.
Also participating in the event were the general head of Embrapa Digital Agriculture, Stanley de Oliveira; the president of the Superior Council of Fapesp (São Paulo State Research Support Foundation), Marco Antônio Zago; the person responsible for the program, Silvia Massruhá; and state secretaries Antônio Junqueira (Agriculture) and Vahan Agopyan (Science, Technology and Innovation).
The rector recalled that Campinas has the highest concentration of scientific, technology and innovation equipment in the country, and that this could make a difference for Brazilian agriculture.
In the municipality, there are installed, among others, the Strategic Development Pole, the CNPEM (National Center for Research in Energy and Materials), the CPQD (Center for Research and Development in Telecommunications) and the Sirius particle accelerator, the Eldorado Institute and the Cargil Innovation Center, one of the main producers and commercialization companies of products linked to agriculture in the world.
“It is in this region that we can make a large-scale difference in the production of food and all renewable products associated with agriculture”, said Meirelles. “What do we need? We need Campinas City Hall, the state government, Embrapa and the Federal Government,” he stated. “The union of these organizations can have a huge effect on the role that Brazil can play in the transition to a society based on renewable resources”, he concluded.
The mayor of Campinas, Dario Saadi, reinforced the importance of implementing HIDS and recalled that the law that provides for changing the zoning to adapt the project is expected to be voted on by the City Council in the second half of this year.
Governor Tarcísio de Freitas highlighted the importance of the Embrapa program. “Our agriculture is already quite advanced from a technological point of view. What remains is to reduce the gap that exists between large and small producers”, said the governor.
“Small people must have access to digital agriculture, to technology. We want to connect small producers to the market, to school meals,” he added. “The states that grow the most are those that invest in science and technology. If we want to reduce the social gap, we will have to invest a lot in science, technology and innovation”, summarized the governor.
Visit to HC
After the launch of the program at Embrapa Digital, the governor visited Unicamp's Hospital de Clínicas (HC). He was received by the hospital superintendent, Elaine Cristina de Ataide. Among other topics, they discussed joint efforts for elective surgery and the cost of the hospital.