Brazil

Brazil is one of the largest agricultural exporters in the world and has a long history of agricultural R&D to support its diverse industry.

The John Innes Centre leads a Joint Centre between the UK and Brazil (UBNFC) aiming to develop innovative technologies to increase crop productivity in Brazil using nitrogen-fixing bacteria as a sustainable source of fixed nitrogen.

In turn, it is hoped that this will reduce the input of chemical fertilisers in agriculture and mitigate the environmental and economic impacts of reactive nitrogen pollution. The Centre is funded through the Newton Fund by the BBSRC in the UK and the Brazilian National Council for State Funding Agencies (CONFAP).

The John Innes Centre also leads a Newton Fund project on “Exploiting natural and induced variation to increase Fusarium head blight and brusone resistance in wheat”. The project aims to inform the development of new traits to enhance the sustainability of wheat production in the context of the wider agri-ecosystem in Brazil.

The project is funded through the Newton Fund by the BBSRC in the UK and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Embrapa.