In Pará, Emater celebrates 60 years of promoting innovation in family agriculture
The company ensures support for small producers and changes realities, providing technical assistance and rural extension to the 144 municipalities in Pará.
Keeping up with technological changes over the last few decades requires investments in updates. By implementing continuous and rapid changes within the public service, ensuring support mainly to small producers, the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Company of Pará (Emater-Pará) brings innovation to the field, to family agriculture, contributing to improvements in the lives of families that produce healthy food and, consequently, in the quality of the products that reach the consumer's table.
On December 3rd (Wednesday), Emater-Pará will celebrate 60 years of history in public technical assistance and rural extension. These six decades have been marked by many changes, both inside and outside the rural environment. Among them is the speed of service.
Two weeks ago, the company launched the Emater Pará Seal at the Agri Zone (Agri Talks Arena), set up at Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Company), during the COP30 (30th World Conference on Climate Change) program, just days after the launch of the Sisater Pai D`égua app, the System for Monitoring Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Activities (Sisater), which will now be available at the fingertips of rural extension workers and family farmers.
Decades of support - Throughout Emater-Pará's journey, many have witnessed these changes and had their lives improved. Among them is organic agroecological farmer Jiovana Lunelli, owner of Sítio Paraíso Orgânico, in the municipality of Brasil Novo, along the Transamazon Highway (BR-230), in western Pará. With the support of Emater-Pará for about 50 years, she produces artisanal chocolates, chocolate nibs, cocoa tea, and cocoa honey liqueur, among other products, and was the first producer to receive the Emater Seal at the ceremony held during the COP30 program.
“My story with Emater began when I was still a child, when my family arrived here in the state. For me, it was a great emotion to be the first to receive the Emater Seal on my product. It has been many years of support, and for me, it is a true feeling of gratitude,” said the producer.
All seals issued by Emater will have a QR Code and a serial number to also ensure the origin and credibility of family production. Both the QR Code and the serial number guarantee the traceability of the product. Through these codes, the public will know where these products are made and who produces them.
Fundamental role - Jiovana Lunelli began her story with Emater when the internet was not even a topic of discussion, let alone QR Codes. Her family arrived in Pará in the early 1970s, coming from the city of Presidente Getúlio in Santa Catarina. A few years later, the family was approached by the then Association of Credit and Rural Assistance of the State of Pará (Acar) and began receiving technical assistance for food production. In 1975, the family started producing cocoa, encouraged by the rural extension workers from Emater-Pará.
“Since then, this relationship has deepened, and the importance of Emater in our lives and in our region has grown. It plays a fundamental role in the lives of family farmers, across various sectors of agriculture,” the producer recounts.
According to Jiovana Lunelli, the union of technical and traditional knowledge results in greater productivity. “We need a company like this, that understands us, knows our realities, and knows how to communicate with us. After I got married, Emater also continued to provide technical assistance to my husband's family. And for me, these 50 years of assistance have been fundamental to my work,” she emphasizes.
Knowledge and climate justice - With over 50 years of experience as a rural extension worker, agronomist Francisco Chaves, based at the Emater Local Office in Santarém, western Pará, believes that combining technical knowledge with the fight for climate justice directly contributes to increasing productivity and food quality, ensuring food security without harming the environment.
“The positive impact caused by technical assistance is that it directly contributes to increasing productivity and food quality, promoting good cultivation practices, management, and sustainable land use, as well as the rational use of inputs, ensuring healthy food, reducing waste, and improving the producer's income by lowering production costs,” he states.
Income strengthening - All technical assistance work is connected to strengthening the income of family farmers, through increased productivity, improved product quality, support for property management, and facilitation of access to credit and public policies.
Like Francisco Chaves, Eneas Fontes, an Agricultural Technician, joined Emater-Pará at a very young age. Currently, he has 46 years of experience as a rural extension worker and takes pride in the work he does, which could even become a book. According to him, “Emater was a turning point in my life. I have a very strong and significant dedication to my work, with the farming families I have helped. And I believe there are things we can leave as a legacy, for personal reasons and for the company. That’s why I think about turning these stories into an autobiographical book, to pass on knowledge to future generations.”
For him, being a rural extension worker at Emater-Pará adds social, economic values, and great personal satisfaction. “I have had the happiness of seeing many stories transformed for the better. It is a great satisfaction for us, extension workers, to reach a community, awaken dreams, start a job, and point the way, only to later see the transformations that these families and communities have undergone for the better,” says Eneas.
Sustainability and food security - When it comes to the 60-year journey across the 144 municipalities, Emater-Pará - the only one in Brazil present in all municipalities - carries in the pages of its history the contribution to bringing more food to the consumer's table, more income to the countryside, and greater autonomy to family agriculture.
For the company's president, Joniel Abreu, Emater-Pará's work is fundamental in the fight for climate justice. “It represents a social, environmental, and economic transformation that creates sustainable production chains, food security, and expands market opportunities for family farmers, in the pursuit of a more sustainable, fair, and healthy environment on the planet. This is the work of Emater-Pará, and being president at this moment is very gratifying because we are recording another chapter of this story, with public technical assistance and rural extension services, positively transforming lives,” highlights Joniel Abreu.
