Roberto Rodrigues

Roberto Rodrigues is a Brazilian agricultural engineer and politician who served as Brazil's Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply from 2003 to 2006, the first holder of that post under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Born in Cordeiropolis on 12 August 1942, he trained as an agricultural engineer at the Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture of the University of Sao Paulo in 1965, and spent more than four decades as a professor at Sao Paulo State University while also serving as Secretary of Agriculture and Supply for the State of Sao Paulo from 1993 to 1994. As minister he is credited with helping position Brazilian agribusiness as a major global exporter through export-oriented policy and cooperative structures, and in 2004 the Association of Agricultural Engineers of the State of Sao Paulo named him Agronomist of the Decade. He went on to coordinate the Agribusiness Center of the Getulio Vargas Foundation and to hold an agribusiness chair at his alma mater's agriculture school.