#01 What does it mean to be the first Nuffield International scholar? (part I)

The 2015 Nuffield scholarship is already happening and promoting so many changes, but I am only now starting to publicly register my notes on what has been this experience and expectations for what’s to come.

Before embarking on this adventure in 2015, I’d like to talk about my introduction to the Nuffield organization.

I’m in the agribusiness sector since 2010, working first as an intern and later as an economic analyst at Céleres Consultancy, located in Uberlândia, Brazil. In 2012, we were contacted by a young and passionate researcher named Kate Lee, who introduced herself as a Nuffield scholar, and wanted to talk to Brazilian farmers and companies on new and emerging technologies in agriculture.

I was then presented to this amazing and multinational organization, responsible for a global network of farmers and researchers, and that strives for excellence in all aspects of management, distribution and agricultural production. I also got to learn about the scholarship program and growing involvement of farmers and researchers all around the world.

In 2014, Nuffield International gave Brazilian producers the opportunity to participate in the program selection, and Kate soon sent the news to my director, Anderson Galvão. I was then encouraged and supported by him and all the team of directors and employees at Céleres Consultancy to participate. Fortunately, I was awarded the first Nuffield International scholarship, supported by TIAA-CREF, that has great commitment with global agricultural development, and so this new chapter in my life has begun.

It is intriguing, however, how a such traditional organization, which had its first farming scholar sent to study hill farming, sheep and wool in 1947, thanks to the revolutionary mind of Lord Nuffield, is not well known by most Brazilians, including the agribusiness community.

I live in a country where agricultural production is crucial for the GDP composition and trade balance, full of enthusiast producers who work hard and are constantly in search for farming improvements, having much to add and be added by the Nuffield culture. Why, then, the organization ideology is not so widespread in Brazil as it is in Europe, for instance? And what does it mean to be the first Nuffield International scholar, residing in Brazil?

Let’s leave it for part II.