Publications
Publications
- December 2009 (Revised May 2010)
- HBS Case Collection
Codevasf
By: David E. Bell, Marcos Fava Neves, Luciano Thome e Castro and Natalie Kindred
Abstract
With many countries facing scarcity of freshwater and farmable land, Brazil decided to leverage its wealth of both resources to attract global agribusiness players to the historically poor Sao Francisco Valley (SFV) in the country's northeast. To do so, Brazil was instituting its first public-private partnership (PPP) in irrigation at Pontal, a partially built irrigation project in the SFV. In exchange for partial reimbursement from the Brazilian government and free use of 30,000 hectares land for 25 years, the private-sector partner would finish constructing the irrigation infrastructure and establish agricultural operations on the project; the partner was also required to integrate some local smallholders into the production chain. In December 2009, Codevasf was almost ready to start accepting bids for Pontal. For Clementino de Souza Coelho, director of infrastructure for Codevasf, the stakes were high: if successful at Pontal, PPPs could be replicated throughout the SFV, transforming the historically poor region into an agribusiness hub, as well as be a model for the rest of the world.
Keywords
Agribusiness; Resource Allocation; Bids and Bidding; Infrastructure; Supply Chain; Business and Government Relations; Natural Environment; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Brazil
Citation
Bell, David E., Marcos Fava Neves, Luciano Thome e Castro, and Natalie Kindred. "Codevasf." Harvard Business School Case 510-042, December 2009. (Revised May 2010.)