East Africa Brazil: Bridging Brazilian Expertise and African Agriculture for Sustainable Development
In this interview, we delve into the visionary efforts of João Ramos, Managing Partner at East Africa Brazil International. Ramos explains the initiative’s core concept of leveraging Brazilian expertise to enhance infrastructure and agricultural sectors in Africa, beginning with Kenya. The focus is on implementing regenerative agriculture practices to improve soil quality, diversify crops, and promote sustainable farming techniques. By engaging local landowners and providing comprehensive training, East Africa Brazil International aims to transform agriculture into a lucrative and appealing career for the youth, thereby fostering economic self-sufficiency and food security for smallholder farmers.
Interview with João Ramos, Managing Partner at East Africa Brazil International
What is the concept of East Africa Brazil International? What do you aim to achieve?
The idea behind East Africa Brazil International is to leverage the knowledge of Brazilian companies but we are at the moment mainly focused on infrastructure and agricultural companies and bring them into Africa, starting with Kenya. We do not reinvent the wheel; many companies that have been successful in Brazil for decades can also be here, given their well-documented track record.
On agriculture for example, what we promote is essentially known as regenerative agriculture, which relies less on chemical products and focuses on improving soil quality to reduce dependency on chemicals. Our approach also emphasizes diversifying crops, relying less on monoculture, and producing a variety of products within a smaller area. This will enhance soil quality and include agroforestry practices to increase tree cover, thereby capturing more carbon and reducing emissions.
The quality of agricultural products, including meat and poultry, can be significantly improved with these techniques. This can revolutionize agriculture, making it more appealing to the youth. Currently, agriculture is often perceived as a field for the older generation and is associated with poverty rather than new opportunities. Agriculture is the backbone of many countries’ economies. By making it more attractive to the youth with new techniques and technology, it can become a path to employment and economic freedom. Smallholder farmers can achieve self-sufficiency both economically and in terms of food security.
In Africa, the majority of agriculture is conducted by smallholder farmers who often rely on monocultures, which yield minimal returns. The current system benefits brokers more than the farmers. By providing training and implementing new techniques, we aim to change this and ensure better returns for the farmers. Training is a significant focus of our initiative.
What specific resources or support do you need for this project? Which stakeholders do you need to persuade, and what types of stakeholders are involved? Are there requirements for land or farms?
We want to approach locals who have access to land. Many of these lands are idle because the owners, who are often educated professionals like doctors, lawyers, and business people, do not know what to do with them. Many have tried to farm but lost money due to a lack of know-how. These are the partners we want to engage with as they can provide the land, early-stage financing, and commitment, while we bring our track record, operational capability, and access to markets, both local and international. We will fine-tune our approach based on market needs and aim to reduce importation by leveraging local markets.
Additionally, we plan to train not only these partners but also the communities surrounding the farms. This way, we can have a broader impact, both economically and on the local population.
What unique value do you bring compared to other consultants or companies?
The company I am pushing now is called L.E.A.F. Africa. The idea is to use regenerative agriculture and what is called syntropic agriculture to the mainstream. This results in techniques that, over time, reduce the need for water and chemicals to produce quality products. With conventional monoculture agriculture, the quality of the soils decreases. Our approach aims to produce high-quality crops while simultaneously improving soil quality. Over the years, this leads to more diverse and healthier soils with greater biodiversity. This, in turn, creates optimal conditions for increasing product quality. It is syntropic agriculture combined with agroforestry.
Could you provide an overview of the other aspects of your business? What are the key components or activities that make up your overall business operations?
The majority of my businesses now started here with infrastructure development and project finance. This is still my main focus: looking for projects and connecting with international financiers and financing options, primarily from Export Credit Agencies for machinery and equipment purchases from Europe. Additionally, I work on infrastructure development with large-scale contractors and groups that want to develop significant projects in the region. This has become increasingly challenging due to government debt, making private-public partnerships more difficult to implement because of regulatory issues.
As a result, there is a growing need to invest more in the private sector and bring funding to private projects, where most available funding is directed. Given the current macroeconomic realities and the global emphasis on food security, the focus has shifted more toward agriculture. Alongside agriculture, infrastructure is also crucial, particularly access to water, which is one of the most sensitive factors in the region. So, we are striving to make an impact in these areas.
Where do you envision this project in the medium and long term? What is your ultimate goal or vision for its success?
The idea is to implement the project here and grow it to build a track record demonstrating what we can achieve. Once we have that track record, and with the various systems we have in place, such as L.E.A.F. Africa and ForestFoods, we can showcase our capabilities. ForestFoods is one of our partner companies that has already implemented some of these techniques in the country and other regions. Their experience and growing interest in these methods highlight their success.
ForestFoods focuses on syntropic and agroforestry systems for smaller farms. Our goal is to expand this to include more commercial and medium-sized farms. Most of the available private land ranges from 20 acres to 500 acres, so we have systems suitable for both smaller and medium-sized farms. With a proven track record, our ability to secure funding and implement these systems in other Sub-Saharan African countries will improve. The main goal is to effectively implement these systems and present a robust proposal to African agriculture.
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