JAMAICAN students of agriculture and other disciplines are being encouraged to take advantage of the scholarship opportunities available for higher education studies in Brazil.

During a recent courtesy call on Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Pearnel Charles Jr, Brazil’s Ambassador to Jamaica Elza Moreira Marcelino de Castro said that the initiative is one that will serve to build capacity and enable training of citizens as the world grapples with uncertain times.

“To achieve food security we cannot rely completely on the international market — capacity-building is extremely important, and training people is fundamental in this process,” the ambassador said.

As such, she stated that she intends to make the Brazilian scholarships more known to Jamaican students.

“We offer lots of courses at our university — in agriculture [and] in different areas. We select students every year. I intend to visit the universities and the schools so people [can] be more aware that the moment they decide to follow their studies there are more opportunities in Brazil in agricultural education,” she added.

She explained that the studies are free of cost, with the students paying for accommodation. However, she pointed out that from time to time there is collaboration with foundations in Brazil to assist with accommodation for the students.

“In Brazil, the Government provides all the training and the foundation pays for the accommodation. It is something reasonable because, for students, usually they have a kind of arrangement close to the school, so there’s some kind of way to make this viable for students that don’t have their own financial resource,” she explained.

In his response, Charles Jr hailed the scholarships as an important display of partnership.

“That kind of exchange will assist with every other area that is required, in terms of partnership. Once you have students that are given the opportunity to learn in the space they become part of that society as well. When they come back to Jamaica they are going to bring an understanding of Brazil that will open up greater channels for trade and exchange than we can even understand or imagine.”

Other areas of collaboration between Brazil and Jamaica were also discussed. These included expanding trade, market access, and ensuring further capacity-building.

“It is very important to us that we explore opportunities with partners for technical or non-technical strengthening of trade opportunities, partnership, training, and just to see the sharing of best practices and opportunities, in terms of the full range of the agricultural chain. Now is perhaps a time for us to really press gas,” the minister said.