Our story began in 2019, when on a visit to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA), our Coordinator, Professor Paulo Henrique Montagnana V. Leme met with Mr. Fernando Camargo, Secretary of Innovation, Rural Development and Irrigation, and with the then director of Innovation Support at the Ministry of Agriculture, Luís Cláudio Rodrigues de França, for a conversation about the future of innovation in Brazilian agribusiness and the role of universities and research centers.

Upon returning to Lavras, professor Paulo Henrique invited professor Elisa Reis Guimarães to start a project to build a study center, focusing on understanding the dynamics of the development and use of new technologies in agribusiness. The target would be to understand the role of new technologies, combined with the concept of industry 4.0, as well as understanding the profile of rural producers and their needs today and tomorrow.

Throughout 2019 and early 2020, the group worked on projects such as the MAPA Agricultural Observatory, participating in events and organizing the team.

Its official foundation was on 07/08/2020, with the founders being professors Paulo Henrique Vicente Montagnana Leme and Elisa Reis Guimarães (based at DAE/UFLA); professor Caroline Mendonça Nogueira Paiva, from Faculdade Presbiteriana Gammon (Fagammon); post-doctoral students in administration Eduardo Cesar Silva and Daniel Leite Mesquita, doctoral students in administration Gustavo Nunes Maciel and Angélica da Silva Azevedo and master's student in administration Rafael Farias de Souza, all linked to the UFLA Postgraduate Program in Administration (PPGA -UFLA).

Since then, the team has grown and today has more than 20 people, including students, teachers and external researchers. We have already developed special, informative studies, academic texts and various analyses, focusing on research and extension.

The group's mission is to build applied research to understand the dynamics of the development and use of new technologies in agricultural markets. AGRITECH UFLA seeks to fill a gap in studies on the application of new technologies in agribusiness, helping to understand these market dynamics and helping researchers, producers, extensionists and public and private managers to understand the main factors that are promoting its expansion.

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