RESUMO
Historical concerns over the exploitation of the Global South's genetic biodiversity framed the importance of creating global governance mechanisms to ensure fair access to and benefit-sharing of genetic resources worldwide. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty) came into existence over the past three decades to redress the centuries of genetic exploitation of the Global South. Both of the treaties explicitly regulate and facilitate the exchange of physical genetic material. The recent emergence of relevant digital technologies, such as digital sequencing information (DSI), could make both treaties irrelevant. This article analyses the current state of the CBD and Plant Treaty as it relates to global agricultural research in light of DSI. I argue that DSI presents less of a threat to exacerbating historical gene flows than it does to the further displacement of public sector research by the private sector. The article then suggests looking at the lessons from open-source approaches to counter the privatisation of DSI and related gene flows. I draw on 11 key informant interviews with country negotiators involved with the CBD and Plant Treaty as well as a review of official reports from both frameworks.
RESUMO
The Cerrado is one of the most important regions for agricultural development in the world and is the main productive breadbasket of the Americas. One of the main agricultural activities in the region is high-tech livestock. Cerrado soils are predominantly low in fertility, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi play a fundamental role in plant nutrition in this biome. Understanding the behavior of mycorrhizal fungi in the soil under pasture is essential for the development of more efficient and sustainable management practices. Thus, this work aims to verify the activity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in different species of forage grasses cultivated in cerrado soil. To measure mycorrhizal activity, soil spore density factors and mycorrhizal colonization rates in roots of 14 forage grass genotypes were investigated. No significant differences were identified in spore density values between the investigated genotypes. Panicum maximum cv and Mombasa showed the lowest values of mycorrhizal colonization, and the highest values were found in the roots of Brachiaria decumbens. Among the identified genera associated with the rhizosphere of the genotypes studied, Gigaspora, Scutelospora and Sclerocysts are less frequent, which indicates that the association with these fungal genera is less recurrent than with the others.
RESUMO
This article analyzes the critical geopolitics of knowledge production in Brazil during the 20th century. It offers a critical appraisal of recent calls to decolonize political geography by locating the role played by actors and institutions in the Global South within the broader narrative of the Green Revolution. Historical accounts of the Green Revolution have only recently started to incorporate perspectives of and attribute agency to actors in the Global South. However, Brazil has largely been left out of the geographical scope of the Green Revolution. This article focuses on U.S.-Brazilian geopolitical relations behind an effort to reproduce the U.S. model of higher education, rural extension and agricultural research in Brazil. I argue that the confluence of Brazil's geopolitical importance with opportunities for foreign investment in its agricultural sector brought together U.S. and Brazilian experts and expertise to modernize Brazilian agriculture. The case of transnational soybean research illustrates the importance of this relationship in transforming Brazil's agricultural sector and limiting alternatives. This article offers an account of how the geopolitics of knowledge production shape the long-term institutional legacies of national research institutions.
