Erich Schaitza took over in May and wants to foster partnerships between private companies and the institution to solve common issues in forest planting
The state of Paraná is privileged when it comes to planted forests, according to Embrapa Forestry General Head Erich Schaitza. He, who officially took over in May this year, states that the forests in Paraná grow much better than in any other location in Brazil. “The highest yields and the greatest forest productivity are in Paraná”, he declares.
The scenario could be even better if it weren’t for a huge disparity among the producing regions within the state. “There are regions where we find a very high level of professionalism to produce forests, and others with not such technical capacity available,” he justifies. According to him, there is a lack of trained staff in some new planting regions. “And that happens not only due to the fact that the people are not trained, but also that in some areas, that have never worked with forests, everything is more difficult, the nurseries are not well-structured, the genetic material is not well identified for each location”, he adds.
Therefore, according to his point of view, research is essential. “For instance, we went to a region that is not bad, they are quite good producers, in the western Paraná. And we started to see soil, different genetic materials, and we were able to reach 10 to 15% productivity gains. And these gains result in savings, since it costs the same amount to do things in a wrong way. So, research has tried to generate knowledge for things to happen in the right way,” he says.
Another hindrance, according to him, are sporadic farmers, which happens quite a lot. “There are people who plant forests every 7-8 years and they end up having quite nice forests, but it is not an activity, since they are not part of the daily routine of the producer. The forestry producer plant all year round. They plant and they harvest. And with that, they establish a cycle of quality within their own action, take all necessary measures, and make adjustments. So, it is very important for the forestry producer to grow along the time and to have organized, regulated forests, for them to produce a given amount every year,” he states.
Partnerships between the private sector and research institutions are essential for the forestry industry to continue developing itself in a solid and constant way, Schaitza says. He sees in the union between these two poles the solution for issues that are common to all forestry producers in Brazil, whether in the sense of increasing productivity, or solving specific issues in the forestry industry. “Embrapa Forestry, as a research institution, is not able to work with the 8 or 10 million producers in Brazil. Our budget has been reduced year after year, and our capacity for financing projects has been decreasing. What we are doing is joining companies and people, with participation in the costs,” he explains.
And through these partnerships with companies that Embrapa Forestry was able to find a solution to leaf-cutting ants, for instance. “Ants are a problem everywhere. And the most commonly used insecticide nowadays, sulfluramide, is soon to be taken off the market. We could develop, in partnership with someone, a project to make a substitute for such ant insecticide. And with this partnership, my partner who invested in the research, will have the right to trade the product, which may even be a biological insecticide. He is going to make money, we will earn some money in royalties, but the entire forestry productive chain will take advantage of this partnership,” he emphasizes. The same goes to technical planting improvements, a new planter. “The partner invests 30%, Embrapa invests other 30%, and together we invest additional 40% in services. It will be produced by the partner, but will be available for everybody”, he says.
Small producers can also take part in the partnership process. However, it’s important to talk to someone at the Paraná Rural Development Institute (Instituto de Desenvolvimento Rural do Paraná – IDR), former Emater before that. “Go to them and say: I’ve got this opportunity and would like to research about it. What do you think? Many times it is not a research issue. Sometimes the solution is ready, and by talking to a technical assistant you will get the help you need. If he is convinced, together they will call us and we will put a project together. IDR is a fantastic channel for small producers,” he declares.
According to Schaitza, the system only works “if we talk to each other”. “So if you have an idea and think, for instance, that we could develop a pruning system, to have better genetic material, and that you could do that in partnership with Embrapa. We can. If you do not have the capital to invest, Embrapa doesn’t have it either, but let’s talk about it. Is it interesting? Is it an actual technological issue? Can it benefit many people? We will seek companies to invest in the project. Our business is how to discover a way to move things forward,” he states.
According to him, Embrapa Forestry is developing several projects in partnerships as we speak. One of them, with nanocellulosis, which is a product from the pulp industry, to generate artificial skin for burns. “We have another study with nanocellulose encapsulated as fertilizer, to see how the fertilizer can be released in a slower manner. Another project is on the genetic improvement of pine trees to have better wood for sawmills. This is a project developed by us and a consortium of companies from Paraná and Santa Catarina,” he comments.