Fique Tranquilo

Today was one of our more anticipated visits, perhaps almost as much so or more as Iguassu Falls will be. To set the scene a little bit I'd like to go back to the dinner party last night. It was at the home of the Terasawa's, the owners of FT Sementes, a Brazilian soybean seed company. Our knowledge of the business before the dinner was only to the extent of a presentation that Mauricio had given in October to our group at Illinois, where he is working on his PhD in seed breeding. Over dinner, we started to become aware of the extent of what the Terasawa's have been able to do for the soybean industry in Brazil. We not only dined with the Terasawa's, but key business partners in FT as well as crop scientists from the local universities. Once they had fed us with the delicious barbucue, we had several lengthy conversations with our hosts. It was after 11 o'clock, when, after several tries, Nadial and John's joint effort in getting us to leave finally succeeded. After the meal, we shared stories with each other of the different conversations that we had with Mauricio, Claudio and others, and our consensus was that we had a truly privelaged experience conversing with those who are significantly effecting Brazilian agriculture. We left knowing that we would get more pieces of the puzzle to discover in our morning tour.

We were welcomed to the plant by the same faces whom we dined with the evening before; Francisco, Mauricio, Claudio ( who is a scientist for FT, professor at the nearby university and former student at Illinois), and a couple other scientists and managers of FT. The plant itself is a well kept operation just minutes outside of Ponta Grossa, and down the road from the giant grain storage facility of Bunge. The FT conference room was the setting for our discussion and presentation, led by Mauricio. He described the pictures on the wall surrounding the conference table. What seemed like ordinary pictures of the Terasawa's with thier customers was not the case for the bigger photograph in the middle of the wall. WIth Francisco Terasawa in this photo was Norman Bourlog, winner of the Nobel Prize in Agriculture and the founder or leader in what has become known as the green revolution. It was also interesting to learn that Fransisco was nominated for the Nobel Prize in agriculture, and his story is well worth this accomplishment.

Francisco started his work with soybeans in 1964, and continued that career with the Brazilian Dep. of Agriculture for eight years. During this period his boss was the only person with a Masters degree in Soybean research, so clearly it was a new production means at the time. Francisco's knowledge and interest in soybeans led him to start his own research in this area in 1972, when he founded FT Sementes. He shared with us that he sought out help and understanding of soybeans from several other farmers in the southern region of the United States, and was quick to mention that without their help, he would not have achieved his level of success. Through breeding many different hybrids of soybeans, he found one that had useful characteristics. He bred a soybean that could grow well in a very acidic soil, a soil that was also low in phosphorous and high in aluminum, and this is what you will find across the entire central region of Brazil, called the cerrado. As John Santos (our advisor from Illinois, Uncle John as we refer to him) describes, the central region of Brazil is similiar to that of most of Australia, grazing land, flat, and prairie grass in most parts. Francisco had bred a plant that could be grown for profit in an otherwise baron region. The FT Christalina, the Queen of Cerrado, was a hybrid that took off in popularity with farmers. A region that used to grow 1.5 tons/hectare (around 25 bu/acre) could now produce 3 tons/hectace (50 bu/ac). This was a remarkable accomplishment and product for the farmers of the Cerrado region. And the numbers reflected it, 8 out of 10 soybean plants in all of Cerrado, were the FT Christalina hybrid.

The name FT Semente stands for "Francisco Terasawa Seeds." But, when you walk into their plant, you see the FT logo, and right underneath it is a slogan, it reads, "Fique Tranquilo." This term loosely translates to "Keep calm, or, we will take care of you." And when you listen to Francisco's story, it truly is an understatement to what he has done for Brazilian agriculture.

FT Sementes has certainly had great success, but the valleys have come along as well. 1994 brought disease to the area and hurt Christalina a little bit. Shortly after, Monsanto came to the stage with Round-Up and provided other benefits for farmers. This, combined with a weak product protection system in Brazil led to the decision of selling the Christalina germ plasm to Monsanto. Since that time FT Sementes is still going strong, with 25 different soybean varieties both RR and conventional (60% soybeans in Brazil are non-GMO). They have 8 corn varieties and are coming on strong in the market of bean varieties and edible soybeans. Currently they are the 4th largest soybean firm in Brazil, a market share that has grown over the past few years. Their continued success will be the diligent research that they continue to work on. As Mauricio told us while we were in the research greenhouse, "You can have all of the GMO products and genetics that you want, but the conventional breeding of soybeans for the right conditions is the foundation that makes the other stuff possible." The Christalina changed the way soybeans were produced in the Cerrado, so FT will continue to work towards producing better hybrids for South America and perhaps beyond.