Why should agriculture invest more and more in R&D?

It is no longer news that farmers and ranchers have a tight profit margin. To avoid being left in the red, it is essential that they understand how their business works and have a record of the farm's income and expenses, in order to better organize the rural establishment. But that's not all: they need to be prepared to deal with external factors that cannot be controlled, such as climate, market and input values.

As there is a certain global issue of price definition, producers have to try to be more efficient to overcome adverse situations. Adopting technologies that increase the precision and accuracy of decision-making is the way to achieve this. In other words: it is necessary for agribusiness to invest in Research & Development to guarantee the evolution of the sector. And investing in R&D is nothing more than seeking solutions that meet market demand and developing devices that aim to optimize the property's results.

In relation to agriculture in Brazil, the Research & Development branch is very advanced. On the other hand, in livestock farming we are still lagging behind, mainly due to the lack of economically accessible solutions for livestock farmers. Furthermore, no professional in the field chooses their technologies just because they are beautiful, for example. Proving that they protect the environment, keep animals healthy and make a profit for producers is still a major challenge.

Another major obstacle for the sector concerns the time it takes to prepare a new project. To give you an idea, at Intergado we started to develop solutions based on IOT and data telemetry with a focus on precision livestock farming in 2009, only starting to sell the products four years later. Of course, this is not a rule, but we had to improve and make viable the software and hardware that monitor in real time how much the animal is eating, drinking water and weighing itself per day, in order to help producers in quickly taking decision.

In my opinion, Brazilian agribusiness has improved a lot due to people's qualifications. A postgraduate degree is necessary to be hired in the sector, but companies are increasingly demanding when selecting their R&D team: there are several cases of employees who are encouraged by institutions to pursue a master's degree and doctorate, in addition to scholarships from the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) that places masters and doctors in the private sector.