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Technical co-operation

Applyingnuclear techniques to agriculturein Brazilby P. Willstatter-Greig*

Technical co-operation is a term used widely in theUN system. It can mean, and has mea nt, various things -from the simple transfer of skills or equipment (whatwas formerly called 'technical assistance') to genuinepartnerships and mutua l assistance among all partiesinvolved. The goal in Latin America is the latter, muchmore demanding type of co-operative partnership.In many senses, Latin America is a region ofcontrasts: political, geographic, econom ic, climatic,social and technological. Within Latin America thereare a few countries with well-developed technologicalinfrastructures and comparatively high levels ofeconom ic, social and scientific development. Forexample, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico are all on theway to becoming full-fledged industrial states. Othercountries in the region show a wide spectrum ofdevelopment, with a few still in the 'less developed'category, but most falling somewhere in the middle ofthe development scale. Countries in this middlerange will attain the development pace of the leadersin the region probably only after considerable time.Technological development correlates ratherreliably with achievement in the nuclear field: whereindustry and technology are broadly developed, so isthe country's nuclear technological base. It is notsurprising, therefore, tha t in the Latin American region,nuclear programmes of various typ es includingcommercial-scale power generation are well advancedin Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Brazil's Angra I powerstation, for example, is already producing electricity ona commercial scale. Work on the construction of othernuclear power plants is well under way in all threecountries. It is in such advanced developing countriesthat technical co-operation in the sense of self-assistanceand collaboration is most apparent. The description ofone recent project undertaken in Brazil illustrates

this point.* Mr Willstatter-Greig is Head of the Latin America Section

in the Agency's Division of Technical Co-operat ion Programmes.This article was writ ten on the basis of material related toprojects executed under the direct ion of Mr P. Vose, who isProject Manager, UNDP/IAEA Project , Centro de EnergiaNuclear na Agricultura, Piracicaba, Brazil.

Expertise under one roofSome ten years ago, the Government of Brazil

requested assistance from the United Nations Develop-ment Programme (UNDP) for the Centro de EnergiaNuclear na Agricultura (CEN A), to promote theapplication of nuclear techniques in agriculture. TheBrazilian Government recognized the potential usefulnessof a centre at which facilities and expertise would be'under one roof, but before the CENA was set up nosingle national institute specialized in such applications.Although Brazil then had nume rous well-trainedscientists, and nuclear method s w ere being used tosome extent, expertise and facilities were dispersed

throughout the country. CENA was set up in Piracicaba,as an affiliate of the University of Sab Paulo, toco-ordinate such activities. In approaching UNDP, theGovernment sought to obtain assistance in procuringboth necessary laboratory equipment and the advice ofinternational experts in specialized areas pertaining toactual agricultural production problems. The originalproject request, approved in 1972, included provisionsfor international experts, equipment, and training forlocal staff through fellowships and scientific visits.Fo r its part, the Government agreed to supply buildings,land, equipment, and counterpart staff for the project.Although originally the project had been scheduled toterminate in 1978, UNDP assistance co ntinued througha second phase before concluding in 1981. From 1979,supplementary assistance wasalso provided un der theAgency's regular programme, and some support is stillbeing supplied. A breakdown of expenditures for theproject is given in the Table on page 18.

What is evident from these figures is that the contri-bution by the Government of Brazil*, even excludingalmost 10000 man-months of work by national staff,significantly exceeded the international contribution.International co-operation thus served to supplementan essentially national programm e. Management of theproject wasaccomplished jointly by CENA's Director* In part icular through the Brazilian Nuclear Energy

Commission (CNEN) under the agreement between CNENan d the University of Sab Paulo.

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Technical co-operationExpenditures for the CENA project 1972-1981

LocalSource

UNDPIAEAGovernmentalTotal

Equipment(US$)

804 99942 637

1 514 7002 362 336

Experts

216.317

233.3

Training

207.810 *

217.8

Professionalstaff

45334533

Supportstaff

50135013

Buildingsand land(US$)

1 277 4001 277 400

Total(US$)2 010878

143 7342 792 100 "*4 9 4 6 7 1 2 * *

Figures for experts, train ing, and fo r local professional and support staff are expressed in man-months.* Estimated.* * Excludes the value of na tional staff made available to the project.

and the international Project Manager, the latter actingin an advisory capacity and also as the liaison officerbetween the Government and the Agency. The specificresearch programmes for which international expertservices were sought were, in large part, drawn up andexecuted by counterpart staff. This national approachto implementing nuclear technology has thus servedbot h to develop CENA's scientific independence andto keep research focused on practical agriculturalproblems.Self-sufficient research

In addition to meeting its original objective ofestablishing a comprehensive centre for nuclearapplications in agriculture, the project has attained ahigh degree of self-sufficiency. Its staff is fully cap ablenot only of applying existing nuclear techniques, butalso of developing new ones and integrating them intouseful, practical programm es. For example, useful workhas been done in exploration of water resources in theAmazon region; genetic improvem ent of basic foodcrops (e.g. beans, rice, and wh eat); food preservation;fertilizer use and efficiency; plan t and animalnutr ition; and animal parasitology. Activities thatillustrate the main lines of research are outlined below.Fertilize rs and soil fertility: Considerable progress hasbeen m ade in studies on soil organic m atter, andinvestigations are under way on the effect of vinhaca(liquid waste from sugar refining) on soil microflora.Labelled fertilizers have been used to determine bestmanagement practices for efficient fertilizer use.With 15 N, m easurements of nitrogen fixation inboth leguminous and non-leguminous crops are now inprogress. Laboratory studies have been completed onthe assessment of soil zinc and manganese available toPhaseolus (beans), and analytical methods for totalZn and Mg have been worked out .

Soil microbiology: As it was possible to increaselaboratory space for soil microbiology, adequate facilitiesnow exist for culture transfer and media preparation.In studies on Phaseolus, it was discovered that peaknitrogenase activity during plant development occursbefore the greatest absorption of nitrate, as reflectedby nitrate reductase activity. Other work showedthat radiation-sterilized peat has the greatest capacityfor promoting growth of Rhizobium (nitrogen-fixing)cultures. An international workshop on associativedinitrogen fixation was held in 1979 and theproceedings published.Plant biochemistry: Work in this field has co ncentratedon protein investigations and plant tissue culture. WithPhaseolus, analyses have been made of protein andamino acid con ten t in the seed of various lines. In rice,work is continuing on the determination of characteristicfractions of seed protein and protein levels in differentcultivars. Tissue culture w ork has concentrated on theregeneration of sugar-cane plantlets from callus, and aroutine metho d has now been established. Efforts toculture Phaseolus embryo s are continuing, and recentlyobtained results suggest a favourable outcome; thiswork ought to permit the utilization of wide Phaseoluscrosses that would normally not yield viable plants.An international course on plant tissue culture forthe improvement of tropical crops was held inOctober 1980.Entomology: Studies in entomolog y have concernedstored grain insect pests, the use of radiation for graindisinfestation and the ecology of the Mediterraneanfruit-fly (m edfly). Also investigated was the sugar-canepest Diatraea saccharalis; this work indicated thatminimum insecticidal control at th e critical period couldresult in yield increases of appro xim ately 10% - animportant finding.

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-Technical co-operat ionPlant breeding and genetics: Induced mutation experi-ments have been made on wheat, rice, sorghum,sugar-cane, and on Phaseolus with the overall aim ofobtaining higher-yielding varieties. Investigations onwheat have focused on determining the genetic basisfor short stems and for stem-rust resistance and onobtaining early-maturing m utants. Rice research hascentred on identifying dry-land varieties with toleranceto aluminium toxicity and on the efficacy of sodiumazide in comparison with gamma rays as a mutagenicagent. Efforts are being made to obtain varieties ofsugar-cane and Phaseolus with resistance to mosaic virus.A national course on mutation plant breeding was heldin September 1980.Animal science: The first achievement was the establish-ment of well-equipped laboratories and an animalhouse. Work is progressing on the developm ent of aradiation-attenuated vaccine against lungworm in ca ttle,and animal trials are under way. As regards animalnutrition, investigations have concerned the effectsof dietary phosphorus on sheep and cattle. A projecton the use of sugar-cane waste products in animal feedswill soon be starte d. In general, work at CENA inanimal science over the last few years has beencharacterized by excellent co-operation with theInstituto de Zootecnica in Nova Odessa.Electron microscopy: Studies are continuing on abacteriophage of Xanthomonas campestris, (a pathogenfor the tom ato ): the principal life-cycle stages havebeen reconstructed. Work on the action of Viramideon the NPV virus, which affects silkworms, hasbeen completed, and research is now focused on theaction of glyphosphate, a herbicide, on sugar-canevarieties.Instrumentation group: This unit has been workingon growth-ring/climate relationships and the deter-mination of water flux in wood using gamma-raytechniques. An automatic scanning system, whichincludes com puter-based data storage and analysis, hasbeen developed for growth-ring identification.Soil physics: Main interests are nitrogen transport andtransformation in soil, including nitrogen-compou nddynamics and their relationship to water movement.These topics, together with the efficiency of use ofwater, have been studied in connection with beans,maize, and sugar-cane.Hydrology/ecology: The hydrology of the AmazonBasin is receiving world-wide attention in view of thepossible ecological consequences of deforestation.CENA is collaborating w ith the Instituto Nacional dePesquisa Amazonia (INPA) in Manaus on investigationsof the w ater, carbon dioxide and nitrogen cycles, andit is expected that this work will yield im portan tresults. Recent findings indica te tha t a large proportionof the rainfall in the region (48%) is recycled. Thiscould mean that extensive clearance of trees might

considerably affect the microclimate. In addition,river-pollution studies, with special reference to thePiracicaba River, are being undertaken to developmethods of control using soil-vermiculite mixtures.

Analytical chemistry: The analytical laboratory hasbecome a focal point of many programmes, both forCENA and its collaborators. The laboratory performsthousands of analyses of plant, soil, and water samplesannually in sup port of various research programm es.Particular expertise has been acqu ired in flow-injectionanalysis, and CENA is now regarded as a world autho rityin this area. The labo ratory received cons iderablesupport in the first phase of the project from theDanish International Development Authority.

A model for other centres?Over the last ten years CENA has developed from a'small, rather poorly-equipped national research instituteto a major international centre for agricultural researchat which a great variety of advanced and importantinvestigations are being und ertaken . In view of theshort time CENA has been in ex istence, this is aremarkable achievement. One index of the level ofexpertise at the Centre is that its senior staff membersnow often serve as experts on interna tional projects.As a specialized ins titute of the University of SSo Pau lo,CENA also maintains a strong edu cational role at bo thundergraduate and postgraduate levels. Usually over40 stud ents are enrolled in different stages of its three-year undergraduate course and more than 50 personsattend the two-year postgraduate course 'Nuclearenergy in agriculture'. Fellows from other coun tries inthe region also undertake advanced studies at CENA.For all practical purposes therefore CENA has becomeself-sufficient. This is a notab le and not altogethercommon achievement in the developing world. Whileit is true that the governmental contribution towards

its establishment significantly exceeded the suppo rtreceived from international sources, the latterwere crucial to permitting such a rapid pace ofdevelopment.Some national regulations pertaining t o the disburse-ment of foreign currency could, for example, bebypassed, enabling equipmen t and the services ofinternational experts to be obtained more expeditiouslythan would otherwise have been the case. It is largelyfor this reason th at small-scale assistance is still beingprovided to CENA under the Agency's regularprogramme.

Collaboration with other institutions has markedCENA 's activities from the very ou tse t. During thefourteen years of the Centre's existence contacts havebeen established with more than 40 institutions inBrazil and abroad, and there has been significant inter-change with many of these. Con tinuous contacts are,IAEA BULLETIN, VOL.24, No.3 19

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Technical co-operationfor instance, maintained with INPA in Manaus, IDESP*in Belem, Planalcucar**, various EMBRAPA*** centres,CATI****, the Instituto Agronomico in Campinas andin Londrina, the Instituto de Zootecnica in Nova Odessa,and CIAT***** in Colombia.

.At the international level, in addition to the severalresearch contacts and agreements held with the Agency,CENA frequently hosts various regional and interregionalmeetings and workshops. Furth ermo re, some of thefellowship training provided at CENA is arrangedthrough bilateral agreements with other countries.

* Instituto de Desenvolvimento Economico e Socialdo Para.** Programa National de Melhoramento da cana de acucar

(Instituto do Acucar e do Alcool).*** Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria.**** Coordenadoria de Assistencia Tecnica e Informacao.

***** Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Cali.

In fulfilling its initial objectives, CENA 's leaderswere conscious of the need for co-ordinated developmentin building up the various groups and laboratories. CENA'srequests for assistance clearly show this approach, withexperts' terms of reference, for ex ample, graduallybecoming more specialized and tied to particularinvestigations or special aspects thereof. Collaborationwith other institutions, which now characterizes manyof CENA's activities, was seen as essential so as to keepthe Centre's work problem-oriented, to minimizeduplication of efforts, and to accelerate the pace ofresearch on various problems. These factors, viewedcollectively, have been responsible for the success ofthe project thus far.While conditions are sometimes very different inother developing coun tries, and although the financial

and manpower resources that were available for CENA'sestablishment may no t always be at hand , the generalcourse being pursued by the Brazilian Government andthe Centre is sound, and certainly deserves consideration,if not emulation, by centres in other countries.

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