Technological innovation ecosystem launched at Expointer 2022

An ecosystem of startups, agro-fintechs and new technologies for agribusiness was officially launched at Expointer 2022, the sector’s largest fair in Latin America exclusively covered by AgroPages.

Known as the ″RS Innovation Agro Stage,″ the space encourages debate and the dissemination of technological solutions, with more than 100 speakers and an exhibition featuring 60 startups and 10 companies aimed at attracting potential investors.

One of the most outstanding attractions is the so-called ″startup pitch,″ when entrepreneurs can give a brief five-minute presentation of their innovations and business ideas, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.

One of the startups is James Tip, which uses artificial intelligence to improve inventory management and forecast product sales. According to its CEO, Guilherme Masseroni, James Tip is a demand platform that enables users to maintain optimized inventories, anticipate seasonality, and simplify the purchase and distribution of products.

Another novelty is the marketplace, ″Campear,″ a startup that created the first platform for buying and selling products within its franchise network.

According to Esequiel Ransolin, one of Campear's founding partners, Brazilian agribusiness must still improve several factors. ″Examples of this are producer's ways of relating to industries and doing business. Digitization is present in most segments, but it has yet to arrive in the form of agribusinesses marketing their products, as well as buying and selling. Campear has become that solution,″ he said.

Another startup that stood out was Syntalgae, which develops biotechnology focused on the bioeconomy. The project aims to utilize Brazil's microalgae biodiversity to provide sustainable raw materials.

As the production of high-value-added raw materials in the South American continent is currently very low and depends on expensive imports, Syntalgae is a pioneer with its project in Brazil.

One of the topics discussed at RS Innovation was the use of automation and artificial intelligence techniques in the cultivation of fruits with a market differential, which is supporting important advances in the sector.

The Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel) is using artificial intelligence to develop smart traps with electronic equipment to monitor the pest population.

Small computers, which are embedded in a network of traps spread across the property, capture images and automatically identify which pests are harming the crop and their numbers.

The machine, whose sensors communicate over a wireless network, manages the entire process, which previously require considerable human work and was prone to errors. The objective of the project is to improve productive reality in the field.

″We monitored the population of two pests in orchards with artificial neural networks to verify whether it is necessary to apply pesticides. It is a precise technique with a high degree of accuracy. We subsequently witnessed the efficiency of artificial intelligence,″ said Paulo Ferreira Jr., a research professor at UFPel.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)