To manage agriculture in a State with 594 municipalities, 40 rural development offices, 40 agriculture and cattle breeding defense offices, and 6 research institutes, is an opportunity to participate in an extraordinary experience.

We have been working on the knowledge frontier, on multi-disciplinary issues in the field of sugarcane, involving genetic improvement, soil science, the characterization of the production environment, vegetal plant science, work involving pests and diseases, production estimates based on modeling, biotechnology, use of molecular tools for the development of varieties, gene expression, molecular markers, variety identification, genbank, among others.   

The government of São Paulo has been alert to needs and opportunities, for instance, by having reduced the “ICMS” tax on hydrated ethanol, by launching the Green Energy Certificate and reducing the “ICMS” tax to zero percent on all investments made in electric energy co-generation equipment in plants (until the 2014-15 harvest we will generate 5,000 MW, the equivalent of a plant like Belo Monte), in addition to innumerous other initiatives, to meet the requirements of the State’s strict environmental law, which establishes that by 2020, emissions in the State must decrease by 20%, in comparison with 2005.

Apart from such reduction initiatives, Governor Geraldo Alckmin has been working to modernize the infrastructure of transportation, of the agro-environment, and also to quickly reduce the after-harvest burning rate, providing social security needed for labor qualification programs and the very low income, uneducated population, the elderly and ex-convicts, who absolutely lack conditions of being able to work, providing such persons a dignified living.

We know the government must perform as a partner, opening markets, facilitating regulatory and control initiatives, without, however, interfering and intervening in this huge sugar and ethanol market. That is what we think, so that is how we have been working.