The U.S. mid-term Congressional election is five weeks away; one election that much of agriculture is watching is Brazil’s Presidential race. In the first round of voting – among 11 total candidates – former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) garnered 48.43 percent of the vote while incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro received 43.2 percent of the vote. With neither candidate getting a majority of 50 percent (plus one), the election now moves to a runoff on 30 October. Bolsonaro’s electoral base is in the south and west of the country including most all of the key agricultural states, while Lula’s is in the north and east. The one ag state that Lula won was Minas Gerias; the rest went to Bols...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.