Da Silva visits Brazil amid $17m new funding promise

The FAO’s director-general has met with Dilma Rousseff, the new president of Brazil, and the new government.

Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) director-general Jose Graziano da Silva is on an official visit to Brazil to meet the country’s President, Dilma Rousseff.

The trip coincides with Brazil’s $17 million in promised funding to the FAO, taking the country’s overall commitment to the organisation’s projects to $100 million, according to a press release.

The new capital injection includes $5 million to support a new fisheries project in Africa, $4 million towards a family farming policies project, $3.5 million to expand an existing Latin American and Caribbean school-feeding project and $4.3 million for a project focusing on promoting small-scale aquaculture in Latin America.

Da Silva is also likely to discuss the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), a key public research agency in Brazil’s evolution from food importer to major agricultural producer, ahead of an expected memorandum of understanding between FAO and EMBRAPA. This MOU will contribute to the South-South cooperation, an FAO group dedicated to connecting developing countries with those that have development solutions in agriculture.