Des Moines Register
10-18-06
Soil work in Brazil yields rewards
Prize recipients underscore land's importance
By JERRY PERKINS
REGISTER FARM EDITOR
Ames, Ia. – It might look like dirt, but soil holds the key to life on Earth.
For helping transform the soils of the vast inland region in Brazil known as the
Cerrado so it could grow soybeans and other food crops, three men have been
named winners of the 2006 World Food Prize.
And, Iowa State University soil scientists say, the efforts of Brazilians Alysson
Paolinelli, 70, and Edson Lobato, 66, and an American, A. Colin McClung, 83,
underscore the importance of soil fertility to sustain human existence.
"Often times, we forget the importance of soil," said Robert Horton, Iowa State
University professor of soil physics.
But soil, he said, is the foundation for the production of food and bioenergy crops
and plays a role in the quality of air and water - elements essential for life on
Earth.
Iowa State wants to establish a Soils Institute - a first-of-its-kind institution
that will lead in research soil science, educating the public on the soil's
importance and advocating for the health and care of soil, water and air.
The proposal for the institute has been forwarded to Iowa State administrators for
consideration, Horton said. He estimated that it would take $16 million to open
the institute and $10 million a year to operate it.
Horton invited the Brazilians to cooperate with the Soils Institute, once it is
formed, so it can have an international reach.
Paolinelli, speaking through an interpreter, said he had only had a short time to
study the Iowa State proposal for a Soils Institute, but he was impressed with the
initiative.
Before McClung, Lobato, Paolinelli and others discovered how to make the soils
of the Cerrado productive, it was a distant and unproductive land of almost 500
million acres in central Brazil.
In 30 years, Paolinelli said, Brazil has gone from being an importer to an exporter
of food and now produces $44 billion worth of crops a year. The Cerrado's
development is the key to that growth, he said.
In the 1970s, high prices for food crops and oil unleashed a movement in Brazil
"to make the frog jump," Paolinelli said.
Paolinelli, Lobato and others developed a production program for the Cerrado
based on the research that had been done by McClung 20 years earlier.
"The beginning was very difficult, but we had luck," Paolinelli said.
Another key to the development of the Cerrado was the formation of the Brazilian
Corporation of Agricultural Research, known by its Portuguese acronym,
EMBRAPA.
EMBRAPA performed research and extension activities that spread the research
to farmers. Credit programs also helped finance farmers in the Cerrado, Paolinelli
said.
"We did it from the farmers' point of view," he said.
Lobato told the Iowa State soil scientists that sustainable agricultural practices
that promote the environment while producing food "satisfies farmers, his family
and society in a permanent way."
A broad approach is needed, he said, that will encompass all the sciences
related to agriculture.
"Analysis in needed, but synthesis is necessary to put it all together," Lobato
said.
Biographies
ALYSSON PAOLINELLI:
Former Brazil Minister of Agriculture and former technical director of the Brazilian
Corporation of Agricultural Research, known by its acronym, EMBRAPA.
EDSON LOBATO:
At EMBRAPA, he researched the use of phosphate inputs to improve soil fertility
in the Cerrado soils, as well as the application of lime as a soil amendment.
COLIN McCLUNG:
He discovered the proper application of lime and fertilizers to make the Cerrado
soil productive. In five decades since, soybean yields in Brazil have increased 20
times.
20 years of the World Food Prize
Norman Borlaug, the Iowa native who was named Nobel Peace Prize laureate in
1970, founded the World Food Prize in 1986.
Borlaug won the Nobel for his work developing high-yielding wheat varieties
credited with staving off widespread famine in India and Pakistan in the 1960s
and boosting food production throughout the world.
Borlaug said he thought there should be an award for those who have
contributed to improving the world’s food supply. Also, he hoped the prize would
inspire others to work on boosting food production.
After the original sponsor dropped out, Des Moines businessman and
philanthropist John Ruan picked up sponsorship of the World Food Prize in 1990,
brought it to Des Moines and endowed the $250,000 annual award.
Ruan’s son, John Ruan III, has succeeded his father as chairman of the World
Food Prize.
To mark its 20th anniversary this year, the World Food Prize recognized six
individuals and organizations as Iowa Founders of the World Prize.
They are Meredith Corp. Chief Financial Officer Suku Radia; former Greater Des
Moines Partnership executive Michael Reagen; former state Sen. Elaine
Szymoniak; lawyer Steve Zumbach; the Greater Des Moines Partnership; and
editorial writer Rox Laird and The Des Moines Register’s opinion page.
—Jerry Perkins