Embrapa’s research returns R$27.12 to society for every R$1 invested in the company.

Embrapa released its 2025 Social Balance Sheet this Thursday (23), with data that confirms: for every R$ 1 invested in the company, R$ 27 returns to society. The value is the result of the relationship between the social profit and the institution's net operating revenue (ROL) in the year. In 2025, the social profit was R$ 124.76 billion, which, divided by the R$ 4.6 billion of ROL, results in R$ 27.12. In simplified terms: in 2025, for every R$ 1 invested in Embrapa, the return to society was multiplied 27 times. In real terms, there was a 17% increase in the company's social profit compared to 2024. The impacts reported in the Social Balance Sheet are the result of investments in agricultural research throughout Embrapa's five decades of existence. Scientific knowledge takes years to complete the cycle that begins with basic research, goes through field experiments, large-scale development of technologies with proven results, and is completed with the effective adoption of solutions by the productive market. “The public budget allocated to Embrapa reached R$ 4 billion in 2023 and has been maintained above this level for the last three years. Ensuring the consistency of the allocation of these resources and increasing the level of these values is essential so that the economic and social impacts, such as those detailed annually in the Social Balance Sheet, are also guaranteed for the coming decades,” emphasizes President Silvia Massruhá. The budget resources are allocated to the company by the Annual Budget Law (LOA), proposed by the Federal Government and approved every year by the National Congress. “The data proves the importance of the budgetary restructuring of Embrapa and how it positively reflects on society. As the Social Balance Sheet demonstrates, applying public resources to science, research, and innovation is, in fact, investing in food sovereignty and the economic and social development of the country and the Brazilian population as a whole,” highlights Silvia Massruhá. The calculations and data that make up Embrapa's Social Balance Sheet are based on the evaluation of the economic impact of a sample of 166 technological solutions and analyses of the adoption of a sample of another 209 technologies developed by the institution and effectively incorporated by the productive market. “These impact assessment studies by Embrapa are prepared annually by 42 research units of the company and demonstrate, mainly, the economic benefits incorporated by the productive sector with the adoption of the technological solutions generated. These values are calculated by summing the additional income obtained by the adopters of these solutions,” explains Graciela Vedovoto, analyst responsible for the impact assessment area of Embrapa's Governance and Information Directorate. Of the R$124.76 billion projected as the company's social profit in 2025, R$118.62 billion refers to the assessment of the economic impact of these 166 technological solutions; R$4.63 billion relates to the impact generated by a sample of 110 cultivars from Embrapa and partners; and R$1.5 billion is calculated from the company's social and labor indicators. Among the social indicators, the generation of 132,115 direct and indirect jobs stands out. :: Embrapa's Participation in GDP The GDP of Brazilian agriculture in 2025 was R$775.3 billion. When comparing this to the economic benefit generated by Embrapa's technologies, Embrapa's participation is projected to be 16%. Economic Impacts: Key Figures >> 17% – growth in Embrapa's Social Profit in 2025 compared to 2024 >> R$ 123.25 billion – economic benefit generated by Embrapa and partner technologies >> R$ 775.3 billion – Agricultural GDP in 2025 (11.7% growth compared to 2024) >> 16% – Embrapa's share of Agricultural GDP in 2025 :: Impacts by type of economic benefit It is possible to analyze the types of economic benefits generated by Embrapa's technologies. The literature indicates that it is possible to calculate, using the economic surplus method, four types of gains provided by the technologies: increased productivity, reduced costs, added value, and expansion of production into new areas. Increased productivity is the most common type among these four. To establish the value of this benefit, it is enough to calculate, for example, in the case of different cultivars, the difference between a more productive variety and its predecessor. This difference in productivity, when other variables are also considered (such as price and adoption), will be reflected in the additional income obtained. In 2025, of the 166 technologies evaluated, 105 provided gains through increased productivity. Added together, these differences revealed an impact of R$ 63.93 billion. Examples of the second type of benefit (gains through cost reduction) are technological solutions that save on the acquisition of inputs or that make it possible to replace them with others of lower cost. This is the case with integrated pest management. In 2025, 47 Embrapa technologies provided this benefit, resulting in savings of R$ 45.78 billion for adopters. The most emblematic example of cost-reducing technology is precisely Biological Nitrogen Fixation, which allows the replacement of nitrogen fertilizers by inoculating seeds with specific strains of bacteria. This is the area of expertise of researcher Mariângela Hungria, included in this year's list of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine (USA), released this week. Agro-industrial and processing technologies, which allow some type of treatment to the final product, thus enabling a higher sales value, are examples of the third type of measurable benefit: value aggregation. This is what happens, for example, with goat-derived products (milk, cheese, yogurt, and meat cuts) due to the adoption of the transcervical artificial insemination technique in goats, launched in 2006. The technique, which has proven effectiveness, equals or surpasses the best global practices in artificial insemination of goats in tropical environments. It has been adopted in practically all Brazilian states and also in countries such as Spain, Italy, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, and Colombia. Besides adding value to the final product, it has positive impacts in other dimensions, such as the development of production chains, local markets, and the improvement of animal welfare and health. The fourth type of benefit is also the rarest: the expansion of production into new areas, which occurs when an innovation allows production in areas previously considered unsuitable for a particular crop. Strategies for the recovery of degraded pastures are among the solutions of this type. The Social Balance Sheet highlights the work being carried out in the Cerrado biome. Pasture recovery strategies are characterized by the use of a set of technologies that provide the reestablishment of forage production while maintaining the same species or cultivar. Renovation strategies, on the other hand, consist of adopting technologies that provide the reestablishment of forage production with the introduction of a new species or cultivar. Last year, 37 value-added technologies, along with 15 production-driven technologies in new areas, generated an income increase of approximately R$ 8.89 billion. :: Social Impacts From a social perspective, more than 132,000 jobs were generated by 2025 through the increased adoption of technological solutions offered by Embrapa. This is an estimate of job creation throughout the production chain of each of the solutions that make up the sample analyzed by Embrapa. An example explained in the 2025 Social Balance Sheet is the case of the Brazilian mango certification program. Called Integrated Mango Production (PI-Manga), this methodology adopts a sustainable approach that guarantees high-quality fruit with fewer pesticides, integrated management, and traceability. In the irrigated agriculture hub of the Lower-Middle São Francisco Valley, the implementation of PI-Manga, since 2002, has been positively impacting the entire production chain. Considering the adoption of the methodology in the semi-arid Northeast of Brazil, the system generates approximately one direct permanent job and three indirect jobs in other links of the chain for each hectare cultivated. Knowing that, in 2025, the area adopting the technology increased by 750 ha compared to 2024, it is estimated that 3,000 new jobs were generated solely by the expansion of the adoption of this technology in mango cultivation in this region. The following graph presents the percentage of new jobs generated by the scope of technological solutions and allows us to observe an interesting contrast with the economic impact data also presented by scope in graph 5. While in terms of economic impact the group of technological solutions associated with the theme "Production of fruits, vegetables and other food species" shows the lowest economic benefit (2% of the total benefit generated), this same group of technologies was responsible for generating 23% of new jobs in 2025. This example demonstrates the importance of conducting multidimensional impact assessments, as technologies perform differently depending on the dimension evaluated. The group of technological solutions associated with the theme "Production of fruits, vegetables, nuts and other species" was responsible for generating 46% of all jobs created (Graph 4). In this graph, the Agricultural Zoning of Climatic Risk (Zarc) technology, responsible for about half of the jobs generated in the series, was excluded, as this technology generates jobs that cut across the other categories. In 2025, for the first time, it was possible to estimate the direct, indirect, and induced jobs generated by this technological solution, based on an input-output matrix. The result indicated the generation of more than 65,000 jobs by Zarc, as highlighted in the graph below. Another finding is that the jobs generated are concentrated in the North and Northeast regions of the country (as can be seen in the graph below, items marked in yellow). This data proves that the scientific knowledge and solutions developed by Embrapa directly impact family farming and benefit small-scale Brazilian agri-food production. :: Historical Perspective Embrapa's Social Balance Sheet has published annually, since 1997, the results of the evaluation of economic, social, environmental, and institutional development impacts based on a sample of technological solutions developed by the company. The methodology used can be found on the Social Balance Sheet website and is known in the literature on the subject. It is important to emphasize that the impacts estimated annually are the result of research investments made at Embrapa in previous decades. The data in the graph below (Relationship between Net Operating Revenue and Social Profit) allows us to consider the average of the 29-year historical series of Social Balance Sheets. It can be seen that Embrapa's return to society has shown an average annual ratio of 14 to 1. That is, in the relationship between social profit and net operating revenue, for every R$ 1 invested annually by the government in Embrapa since 1997, there is an average annual return of R$ 14.01 to society. The historical series depicted in the graph has been deflated considering the IGP-DI (FGV) of December 2025. The return of R$ 34.70 for the year 2022, although the highest value in the historical series, is due to a very specific geopolitical and economic context, marked by the significant rise in agricultural input prices. In February 2022, the war between Russia and Ukraine began, a country from which Brazil imports a large part of these products. There has been an increase in the economic benefit of one technology specifically, biological nitrogen fixation, which saves the use of nitrogen fertilizers whose prices have skyrocketed. Since the calculation is done in terms of reduced production costs, not using such fertilizers has resulted in significant savings for the country.

This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.