Renata Rossetto Lopes, a primary producer from Cear in Brazil, is awarded the 2022 Nuffield International Scholarship, supported by PSP Investments and the Chris Reichstein Philanthropy Fund.
Renata is Partner and Business Manager at Fruitissimo, a 49-hectare certified organic farm with ten full-time employees producing tropical fruits, including cashews, guava and acerola cherries, as well as temporary crops such as beans. Renata is responsible for financial and commercial management, as well as development, which includes a post-farmgate facility project to be implemented in 2022.
With a passion for conciliating agriculture and the natural environment, Renata applied for a Nuffield Scholarship whilst thinking about climate change and how agriculture can be part of the solution.
"Our farm in northeast Brazil faces challenges such as droughts and high temperatures, these are getting worse with climate change. This scholarship will help with my professional development as well as my research on this topic," she says.
"My research focuses on the types of carbon sequestration initiatives that grant carbon credits to growers in other countries and could be scaled up across Brazil, where there is currently a lack of financial incentive to reduce emissions."
"Rewarding growers for being part of the climate change mitigation fight is key to having better results and there are already projects compensating growers for carbon sequestration through regenerative agriculture soil management practices," she says.
"I would like to understand these techniques, their limitations, their results and if they can be implemented more effectively here in Brazil - adapting them to our country's needs."
Renata will visit countries that have specific carbon farming initiatives in place including the USA, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Australia. To advance the discussions about the role of agriculture in climate change mitigation, Renata plans to share the outcomes of her study with her agricultural network, bringing new business models and financial tools to promote more sustainable practices in agriculture.
Renata has a Master's Degree in Business Management, and was awarded a scholarship from the Paris Region Council in France to do a Master's Degree in International Affairs at Sciences Po Paris.
