On Monday at 1:30p.m. in Rome, Embrapa and its staff received a recognition from FAO for their contribution to the United Nations 2030 Agenda. The 2022 Champion Award is considered FAO's highest honor, in recognition of a significant and outstanding contribution towards advancing the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals. In addition to Embrapa, the award ceremony included two other institutions that were granted FAO Partnership Award. Access FAO's release about the ceremony in Rome Check the ceremony photo album Embrapa's executive director of Institutional Management, Tiago Toledo Ferreira, received the award from the hands of FAO's director-general in Rome, QU Dongyu: “For Embrapa, it is an honor to receive the 2021-2022 Champion Award from FAO, a prestigious and long-running partner. We are united in our joint efforts to end hunger and poverty. I thank Embrapa's whole team of professionals and partners for their arduous work to bring forth sustainable innovations for Brazilian and world agriculture. This award signals that we are in the right path to fulfill Agenda 2030”, he stated in his acceptance speech. “Embrapa is a major symbol of the Brazilian commitment to the pillars of sustainable development in the 2030 Agenda. For nearly half a century, it has been fighting food insecurity by using the weapons of science and biodiversity conservation”. The statement was made by the permanent representative of Brazil at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), ambassador Fernando Abreu, in Rome, Italy. Tiago Ferreira explained to the audience that the corporation coordinates a network of 1100 employees, in its 43 research centers spread throughout the Brazilian territory, working with the 17 SDGs. As an important result of this effort, the corporation moved from 140 technologies in line with 81 targets within the 17 SDGs, in 2021, to 156 technologies in line with 131 SDG targets in 2022, which has been contributing to the Brazilian achievement of the pillars of the 2030 Agenda. “As they are based on economic, social and environmental pillars, Embrapa's technologies were fundamental to promote an agricultural production system that protects the environment and feeds the world. Brazil conserves or protects over 66% of its territory and feeds over 800 million people, exporting to more than 200 countries”, the director stated. “Global problems require global solutions, and Embrapa has built a strong network of international cooperation to find joint solutions to face challenges like poverty, hunger, decarbonizaiton, and sustainable agriculture. We believe in global cooperation”, he added. In his acceptance, Tiago Ferreira stressed that the application for the award was the merit of a group of ten women employees from nine of Embrapa's research centers. “We work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to find technological solutions that contribute to reducing the hunger, poverty and inequalities, both in Brazil and in the world”. For the ambassador Fernando Abreu, Brazil is proud to count on an institution formed by thousands of qualified scientists, who bring their expertise to the development of technologies that benefit not only Brazilian society, but also a large portion of the tropical world. “As a consequence of this commitment, Embrapa offers a valuable contribution to the supply and the resilience of the global food market, and is an active participant in South-South cooperation programs that Brazil conducts”, he highlighted. Embrapa received the 2022 Champion Award. The following organizations received FAO's “Partnership Award”: Foundations for Farming, in Zimbabwe; and Wageningen University and Research, from the Netherlands. The director Tiago Toledo Ferreira and the coordinator of Labex Europe, Vinícius Guimarães, participated in the ceremony. The ceremony was broadcast live by FAO International and the recording will be available soon. Embrapa's contributions for food and nutritional security nominated for the award These are examples of alignment and contribution to achieve the 17 SDGs: the Food Biofortification program, which has already served 46,000 families in social vulnerability; the Bem Diverso Project, a joint initiative by Embrapa and UNDP, which in 2020 was recognized as best practices, training 3,000 extraction workers, technicians and smallholders in technologies for management, ecosystem recovery, trade and public policy. In this sense, there is also the project Organic Fruit Orchards, which led to the implementation of 2,476 orchards, with 413,845 trees planted in 238 cities, reaching about 71,000 beneficiaries that include quilombolas (descendants from runaway slaves), family farmers, and agrarian reform settlers. Another example is the project "Sisteminha Embrapa" (Integrated Food Production System), implemented in different Brazilian states as well as in Africa. Two other important contributions to food security are the technologies applied in the Low Carbon Agriculture Plan and the Integrated Amazon Project, which is carried out by 14 of Embrapa's research centers, to reduce deforestation and environmental degradation alongside traditional communities, with funding from the Amazon Fund and BNDES. Learn more Embrapa receives international award from FAO for contribution to 2030 Agenda Visit Embrapa's page with the contributions to the achievement of 2030 Agenda Learn more about the 2022 Champion Award Access FAO's international site