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Alysson Paolinelli,
born in 1936 in Brazil
Alysson Paolinelli received his Agronomy Engineering degree in 1959 at the agriculture college of the Superior School of Lavras, in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. He began teaching there in the 1960s and was a catalyst of the school’s efforts to expand and improve its curriculum and faculty, secure funding, and bring the school into the national system of agricultural colleges as the Federal University of Lavras. From 1967 to 1971, he served as dean, during which time he encouraged faculty members to obtain technical education abroad. The Federal University of Lavras today ranks as one of the top agricultural universities in Brazil.
In 1971, Paolinelli was appointed Secretary of Agriculture of Minas Gerais and served in that capacity until 1974. During this period, Paolinelli’s long-held conviction of Brazil’s great potential for food production—specifically in the Cerrado region — began to be realized as he created policies, institutions, and infrastructure to encourage significant development.
As Secretary of Agriculture in Minas Gerais, Paolinelli’s top priority was to dramatically increase support of agricultural research and training in the state. He created an agency to integrate all the agricultural teaching and research entities in Minas Gerais, and he encouraged universities to collaborate with farmers to improve agricultural practices. He cooperated with Brazilian and international credit agencies to hire more than 1,000 new technical researchers over three years.
Paolinelli also created a new model for rural credit to support integrated agricultural operations. Loans were made available at very low interest, with a grace period extended beyond one crop season and with payments allowing farmers to keep and reinvest a share of their profits. With this support for expanded research and agricultural production, large-scale development in the Cerrado was initiated.
Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture from 1974 to 1979, Paolinelli oversaw the establishment and implementation of the Brazilian Corporation of Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA) as a model research and extension institution that improved and diffused technologies for advancing modern agriculture throughout the country. He also formed the Cerrado Center (CPAC) within EMBRAPA, which focused considerable resources on agricultural development in that region. With his ongoing support of research to improve and enhance agriculture, “he is the leader that farmers have consistently turned to to solve their problems and assist them in advancing agricultural and rural development,” said Eliseu Roberto de Andrade Alves, former president of EMBRAPA.
In 1974, Paolinelli also initiated the Polocentro program to finance and develop agricultural production and rural communities on 3 million hectares across the entire Cerrado region. Within three years, this goal had been surpassed. To sustain growth further, Paolinelli attracted public, private and foreign investments to complement the federal government’s funds for developing the Cerrado. In 1978, he negotiated an agreement between Brazil and Japan to bring together financial resources to invest in research, extension, and entrepreneurship enterprises to further the opening and settlement of the Cerrado.
“As an agronomic engineer, farmer, rural leader, public official, and consultant in agribusiness, Minister Paolinelli has demonstrated visionary leadership, exceptional ability, and has justly earned the nation’s gratitude,” commented Antonio Herminio Pinazza, Executive Director of the Association of Brazilian Agribusinesses.
