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"Precision agriculture optimizes use of inputs in Brazil" - Interview with Marcio Albuquerque
Jul. 25, 2019
BrazilBy Leonardo Gottems, Reporter for AgroPages
 Eng. Marcio Albuquerque President of the Brazilian Commission on Precision Agriculture |
Eng. Marcio Albuquerque, President of the Brazilian Commission on Precision Agriculture, CBAP, granted an exclusive interview to AgroPages, to explain how technology is revolutionizing agriculture in Brazil and meeting the country’s needs for improvement. Albuquerque also talked about how the internet, which will eventually become available in the field, can further boost Brazil’s production capacity, as well as the solutions offered by “Falker.”
What is the current outlook for precision agriculture in Brazil?
Precision agriculture in Brazil is continuing to grow. Adoption expands, technologies spread, and interest in the subject continues to rise. However, adoption and dissemination continue to occur unevenly across cultures, regions and producers. Some technologies that spread very quickly in some markets advance more slowly in others. When we analyze local markets, we have a few different scenarios for Brazil.
The number of tools available to producers is rapidly increasing. This growing supply, coupled with current economic conditions, will lead to more challenges and the need to evaluate the results that every technology can deliver to producers. Producers should be more selective when it comes to technologies that can demonstrate their value.
In relation to other players in the global market, what country is performing better and what needs to move forward?
Brazil has achieved advancement in precision agriculture in recent years, especially in mapping soil fertility. Many large regions have also been mapped, but further work is required to analyze soil fertility. Because we have, in many cases, soils with low natural fertility, we must acquire knowledge to improve or correct what is limiting productivity in these areas.
Other important tools have also adopted poorly in terms of the data they provide. An example of this is harvest maps, which, despite possessing machinery equipped with sensors to generate data, are still used on a much smaller scale than their full potential.
Focusing on fertility mapping, other factors such as mapping soil physics are also not given due attention, especially when we consider soil compaction problems in many areas with minimal cultivation and without adequate soil cover and crop rotation.
What difficulties are facing this segment?
Today, the greatest challenge facing precision agriculture and other agricultural technologies in Brazil is the availability of trained and skilled labor, who can use these technologies and obtain the best results. They include field operators and agronomists trained to use the latest technologies. We do have well-trained professionals, but in insufficient numbers, due to the scale of agricultural areas and the rapid development of technologies. We see qualified professionals working, but also a lack of technical expertise.
I also note the difficulty experienced by some producers in making investments with medium-term returns and training their management. Precision farming equates to agronomic management based on facts. Many producers still find it easier to invest in equipment, infrastructure and people, and then training, machinery, software and consulting and so on. This is usually due to economic reasons, such as low-margin years, but it also cultural.
What are the sector’s medium and long-term prospects?
In the medium term, we must ensure that agricultural technology is not just the "agronomist's tool," and must become the working tool of all farm workers. Day-to-day decisions must be made based on data. We also have the challenge of transferring data from work routines into databases. Through this, we can achieve integrated management, create appropriate field processes, make agronomic decisions, and launch commercial activities, all integrated and interconnected.
In addition to technology, this vision has an important cultural component. Changing ways of working does not just depend on buying a technology package. There has to be an evolving mentality. Therefore, the growing participation of a new generation of rural managers, already connected and accustomed to using technology, is an important part of this process.
In the long term, we should see the increased automation of processes, with systems, software and algorithms becoming progressively larger factors in farming decisions. In parallel to this, processes that are now mechanized should gradually be robotized. Much of what we see today at fairs and in academic research will become reality and change the farming landscape in the coming decades.
How can connectivity change agriculture in Brazil?
Connectivity is key to utilizing new tools and facilitating information exchange. We must understand that connectivity enables the use of many technologies. But in the short term, everything you can do with connectivity is already possible with various alternatives, just less automated ones. For example, instead of the machine in the field transmitting information directly to the office, at the end of the shift the operator must deliver a flash drive to the office. This is a much less practical and error prone process, but the information for decision-making is there. In large areas and on a large scale, we can only collect reliable data through connectivity. But on an average scale, we collect this data.
Once connectivity in the field is no longer limited, we will witness new technologies that help producers that are not available today. When the internet arrived and changed how we use computers, many new office and home routines came along that were unprecedented. Then, cell phones and mobile devices came along, so we witnessed new revolutions that were also difficult to previously imagine. We can definitely create something similar in the field, and some current requirements can be realised by connectivity. But it is difficult to predict what technology will change.
What solutions are offered by Falker, and what are new?
Falker offers different technologies for the different technological needs of consultants and producers. It offers equipment for mapping fertility, such as samplers and GPS that enable producers to begin implanting AP based on the fertility. For those who have already mastered this cycle, it offers equipment for mapping variable high density data, using technologies such as soil electrical conductivity mapping and active NDVI crop mapping.
In addition to mapping, it offers equipment that can identify compacted areas in crops, levels of nutrient absorption through measuring chlorophyll in leaves, and tools for irrigation control.
We see the increasing integration of data from different sources and sensors, which will provide more and more information. By offering the most complete data collection services for precision and digital agriculture, we aims to make data sources more integrated and facilitate the processing of information.
Source: AgroNews
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