BRAZIL: A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

PATRICK TOLANI narrates a delightful experience in Brazil, a nation on a planned journey to prosperity

Late last year, a delegation of some academia from Lincoln University, United Kingdom, a top-level government functionary representing Kogi State and a business contingent from my company visited Brazil with the support from a United Kingdom agency known as Innovate-UK Business-Connect. The background to the trip was a call  launched by the  United Kingdom government through the Innovate-UK Connect seeking for organisations who could form themselves into partnerships to apply for a travel grant to visit Brazil with the objective of learning from the Brazil what they have done to leapfrog into a nation that has not only turned the corner in food production; but more importantly, has now become one of the biggest players in the production of crops that are now of export value: cotton, maize, coffee and soyabeans. Our company together with the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom put in an application, indicating interest to take advantage of the opportunity and organise a visit to Brazil to learn about what the country has been doing in moving its practice top-notch in climate smart and sustainable agriculture.  As fortune would smile on us with a little bit of hard work, the partners were awarded close to £20,000 to embark on the ‘journey of discovery’ to Brazil.

It is pertinent to note that prior to the 12-day visit between the end of November and the beginning of December 2025, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had visited the country a couple of times exploring partnership opportunity between the two countries in critical areas of development ranging from agriculture to mining and, of course, trade and investment. Buoyed by the groundwork that the President and his contingent had made into the country, we were truly excited to leverage on the interactions between the two countries to learn and to develop sustainable partnerships while we were there.

My argument has always been that governments hardly trade and invest directly in each other’s domain. Rather, they facilitate trade and investment through creating conducive and enabling environment to engender private sector’s trade and investment.  A very clear example from another President who understands businesses connecting with investment opportunity, even though, not done in the right way was the aftermath of the invasion of Venezuela, the arrest of its President by the “World Chief Police Officer” and then calling a meeting of the oil giants in the United States to march to the country and invest in the oil sector in Venezuela. While the steps leading to the action has received rounded condemnation worldwide, the lesson from such a strategic approach to reaping directly from the benefit of creating trade and investment opportunity in partner countries should not be lost to the dubious process that led to the move.   This lesson should resonate with us as a nation from the recent participation of Nigeria’ President at the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week at the United Arab Emirate where the President of Nigeria signed an Economic Partnership Agreement with the UAE to foster trade and investment between the two countries.  In a commendable move, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, a lady whom I admire for her knowledge, innovation and tenacity was part of the delegation.  The pact that was signed should be activated by convening a meeting with the private sector to disseminate the import of the deal and the low-hanging fruits from the agreement.

Another lesson that cannot be glossed over is the importance of the role that academia plays in disseminating knowledge through their research and publications.  When we wanted to start the travel grant application, we needed a local partner in Brazil to assist us to arrange the trip to places that would give us access to relevant organisations and offer us the opportunity to learn from the truly inspiring work that they are doing.  Without the knowledge of the dominant language of the country which is Portuguese and without any information whatsoever on who to contact, we read relevant articles in academic journals of repute on our areas of interest, and we found a particular one to be very impressive and contacted some of the professors who authored the article and we got a response from a very bright, highly connected Professor of soil science in Brazil. Once Prof. Dener Oliveira of the Universidade Federal de Vicosa got into the picture, everything started to take shape and we secured the grant to travel to Brazil. It is instructive to mention that a lot depends on our academic community in helping to shape the developmental trajectory that we need in Nigeria.  Hence, it is commendable to know that the Government and the Academic Staff Union of the Universities have struck a deal recently averting another unpleasant round of strikes in our universities.  Having said that, it is incumbent on our university professors to see themselves as pivotal in shaping the country that we all want to build prioritising research and publication which could lead to national development. Working with the private sector to incubate companies and use their patents for commercial purposes is one of the ways to bring about prosperity for their own universities and, in the process, for themselves.  While I believe strongly in labour rights and equity, incessant strikes over wage increase does not seem to be the best pathway to enhance the development of our universities. The Age of AI, international connectivity, and the emergence of ‘wicked problems’ that no single actor can solve requires better coordination, strategic thinking, and cross-national learnings.  Incidentally, funding opportunities are replete globally providing grants to encourage researchers to solve these problems.  I will continue to advocate for stronger interaction between the ‘town’ and ‘gown’ to provide sustainable solutions to solve societal problems.

In Sao Paulo, the delegation participated at a one-day AgricTech programme. Very rich presentations were made by various groups in solving agricultural problems along the value-chain.  Sadly, these brilliant presentations were made in Portuguese without any translation or interpretation.  We had to depend on our phones to keep providing us with translations; but it was just not enough. The lesson from that incident was very clear.  Many of us from the English-speaking countries are very lazy with other languages.  The world we live in is no longer a unipolar world.  A piece of advice for the next generation especially those who are fortunate to attend elitist secondary schools should be that they pay serious attention to acquiring other languages skills. A good knowledge of French, Spanish, Portuguese will offer valuable benefits to those who want to be a player in the emerging global economic order.

From our visits to farmers’ associations to commercial farms and research institutions supporting smart and sustainable agriculture in two provinces of Bahia and Minas Gerais we could see a nation that has shown intentionality in their journey to prosperity. The Bahia region which was rated as very poor just about a decade ago has turned the corner, changed that narrative and become very prosperous. Yet, they continue to push the boundaries, aiming to do better through research, deploying deliberate efforts to succeed without necessarily depending on the government. The government too does not play the type of market distortion role that our government assumes just to satisfy political expediencies in Nigeria.

One of the salient lessons that I cannot forget in a hurry was the way the Professor who hosted us curated the entire travel from one location to another.  Everything was to precision.  Transfers from one location to another happened without a single minute delay.  There was always something to learn from every institution that we visited. Curiously Professor Dener Oliveira also learnt a whole lot of new things during his interaction with many of the institutions that we visited.  Interestingly, we found out also that local and international students did not pay tuition fees in the universities in Brazil.  Their scholarship regime would accommodate any category of students in their universities and international students are truly welcome.  We found a few Nigerian students in the universities and research institutions that we visited; and the good news is that students at the master’s level could learn and study in English Language. What is more, the academic institutions welcome south-south collaboration with willing universities particularly from Nigeria on varied research topics. In one of the institutions, we found out that we could eradicate those demonic mosquitoes in Nigeria within a very short time.

I guess it would have been an anomaly if a delegation to Brazil did not savour the beauty of the Brazilian soccer; something that the country is well known for.  Some members of our delegation were at the stadium to watch a match; but came back disappointed because it was not a popular fixture, worst still the side they supported did not win the match.

On the culinary aspect of the trip, we witnessed a new experience which was commonplace in many of the restaurants in Brazil.  Dubbed as Buffet, you will pick everything you wanted into your plate from fruit to vegetable to meat, fish and whatever your eyes and appetite desire and then go and weigh it to know the amount you needed to pay at the exit door while leaving the restaurant.  Another surprising experience was the celebration of “garri” in that country. I don’t know what name it is called there; but if you go to one of the local restaurants, you will see “gaari” on the table which you could just add to your food, be it rice, potatoes or any other food that you have been served.  It will almost surely be delivered as part of your delivery if you order food from any other local restaurants.  Very interesting, isn’t?  That was quite an experience for us.  Anyway, all said, we had a wonderful experience in the country and there were lots of take-aways for us to advance the objective of supporting Nigerian farmers with climate smart agricultural knowledge and practices.   Obrigado!

Dr Tolani, based in Oxford, UK, is the Chief Executive Officer of Community Energy Social Enterprise Limited, CESEL.