Antonio Flavio Dias Avila

Agricultural Productivity in Latin America and the Caribbean and Sources of Growth

Agricultural productivity in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries between 1961 and 2001 increased due to market regulation, economic openness, and estate reduction. In the six major sections of this chapter, we analyze the evolution of this productivity as well as the output and input growth for the agricultural and livestock sectors. We look closely at economic indicators related to food demand and population growth as well as total factor productivity growth for the region, with an emphasis on the Brazilian and Colombian agricultural sectors. We also discuss some sources of productivity growth, highlighting agricultural research, rural extension, schooling, and nutrition, and ultimately review income improvement and poverty reduction studies.

An Environmental Impact Assessment System for Agricultural Research and Development II: Institutional Learning Experience at Embrapa

“An environmental impact assessment system for agricultural R&D” has been implemented by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Agency (Embrapa) aiming at fulfilling the institutional mission statement of ‘introducing sustainable development objectives in all steps of agricultural research’. The impact assessment platform emphasizes close interaction between R&D teams and technology-adopting producers, under actual field contexts, in order to improve both the technology development and the demand probing processes. The proposed integrated environmental indicators system (AmbitecAgro) has been routinely applied in technology appraisals by all of Embrapa’s Research Units, as one of the criteria of its institutional evaluation system, and toward the formulation of the Social Balance Reports, annually published since 1997. The present paper describes the social and environmental dimensions of this integrated impact assessment platform, its roles in the institutional learning process for technology research management, and an impact analysis of proposed agricultural innovations.

Reflections on a Scientometrical Analysis of Embrapa Brazil Web of Science Articles from 1977 to 2006

Abstract This article studies, using the technique of bibliometrical analysis, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation - Embrapa research centers participation in the journals that were indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) database, from 1977 to 2006. First we analyze the performance of the research centers, followed by the journals which published these articles and finally the partnerships with the institutions that had carried out this scientific work with Embrapa. The results indicated that Embrapa is among the top ten Brazilian institutions to lead in the volume of scientific articles published in indexed WoS journals. They also indicate the relevance of the adoption of goals and results system by an institution of Science, Technology and Innovation and the need to select strategies to establish partnerships, select journals in accordance with the institutional stated mission and standardize theirs authors affiliations, in order to facilitate the identification and improve their scores.

O papel da pesquisa bibliométrica na avaliação de desempenho de instituições de pesquisa: o caso Embrapa

As instituicoes publicas e privadas de pesquisa vem sendo cada vez mais demandadas pelo Estado e pela sociedade a apresentar os resultados de seu desempenho, principalmente de sua producao cientifica, que e avaliada por meio de indicadores bibliometricos. No entanto, os numeros resultantes desses indicadores sao a manifestacao de fenomenos mais profundos, que necessitam ser apreciados por meio de analise qualitativa adicional. E o que demonstra o estudo da Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria – Embrapa sobre sua producao cientifica no periodo de 2004 a 2013, registrada na base de dados Web of Science (WoS). Essa pesquisa nao apenas relatou o aumento substancial dessa producao como tambem avaliou as implicacoes desses resultados sob as dimensoes politica e social, informacional e organizacional. Desta forma, esta sendo possivel para a Embrapa incorporar esses resultados dentro de um sistema mais amplo de avaliacao de desempenho e, caso necessario, utiliza-los para redirecionar os rumos da instituicao.