After two decades, Brazilian mechanization will receive a new technical textbook

In the last two decades, Brazilian agriculture has made an immense leap, both in production and productivity. According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture (Mapa), in 2000, the sector's Gross Production Value (VBP) reached R$331,42 billion, and in 2023, recorded revenue was R$1,25 trillion. Much of this growth is due to the efficiency of agricultural machinery and implements. But, if on the one hand the sector managed to advance so much in crops, in literature it did not follow the same steps. Only now, after 20 years, Brazilian mechanization will receive a new updated technical textbook to help train young professionals.

The “Handbook of Agricultural Machines”, by Editora Funep, which will be launched at Agrishow, from April 29th to May 03rd, in Ribeirão Preto/SP, is a voluntary collaboration project between professors from public and private universities in Brazil and the abroad, aiming to promote access to technical-scientific knowledge. The great difference of the publication is that the production of the content also included the partnership of important industries in the agricultural machinery sector that contributed to their technical areas. Among these companies is Titan Pneus, which collaborated with two chapters dedicated to agricultural tires.

According to the professor of agricultural engineering at the Cachoeira do Sul/RS Campus, at UFSM – Federal University of Santa Maria, Tiago Rodrigo Francetto, one of the editors and authors of the publication, the idea of ​​writing the book arose from the need for a problem old, which is the lack of accessible technical information for students of agricultural science courses. “Until then, all the most recent literature we had in this area was only in international books, as the national works available were not updated, that is, many of the technologies currently used at that time did not even exist and the content available on the internet is confusing and very dispersed. ”, he highlighted.

Together with two other professors/editors and authors (Rouverson Pereira da Silva and Lucas Augusto da Silva Girio) who were also bothered by this problem, the trio then decided to create the book. “In general, all teachers in the area felt this way. However, producing this type of material is very complex due to time constraints and also financing issues to structure the project, which required a good strategy and organization”, highlighted Francetto.

The group also invited 19 other teachers to join the team of writers, each within their specialty. Along with this, they sought out companies in the sector to collaborate with the content from the technical aspect of their respective areas of activity. “The reception from the industry was very positive, the book grew more than we expected and so we divided it into two volumes, the first dedicated to tractors, machines and implements, such as planters, seeders and sprayers, with a very important introductory part for provide a knowledge base”, mentioned the UFSM professor.

This first volume will highlight a chapter dedicated exclusively to tires, a very important part of agricultural equipment, but until then there was little literature on the subject. According to Meire Santorio, director of quality and technology at Titan, one of those responsible for producing the content, this book is very important because it covers the entire area of ​​mechanization, in particular, it has a chapter dedicated to agricultural tires. “When the idea was given to us, we thought about approaching each type of tire for each type of application. In addition, we also highlight the concepts and differences between a radial tire and a conventional tire, as well as their appropriate uses in tractors and agricultural implements, taking into account the types of soil or crops”, he highlighted.

The Field Engineering area, represented by manager Mr. José Luís Coelho, provided other important inputs regarding the content, also adding data regarding current information about technology. According to Meire, the Titan technical team can also contribute with all its experience and tire know-how, sharing materials, standards, types of tire design, as well as information on pressure, weighing and how to balance the set (machine and tire ), all in a very illustrative way.

The professionals also carried out a technical review of the content, taking into account the tire concept from a technical engineering perspective without any commercial bias. “With this material, teachers and students will have high-quality and current technical content on agricultural tires. We needed a publication like this, to help train these future professionals with more knowledge, especially about our sector”, reinforced Meire.

Publication details

In total the book has 20 chapters, 10 in each volume. In every chapter there is one or more companies assisted in their respective areas, going far beyond academic language. Volume II is scheduled to be released soon and will address the topic of machines for mechanized harvesting of various agricultural crops. Initially, the circulation of publications will be one thousand copies for each volume. This initial budget will be almost entirely financed by the industries, which, in addition to the technical content, contributed sponsorship quotas.

For Francetto, the next step now is to make the work accessible to an increasing number of students and universities. According to him, all the content is very useful for a wide range of courses, especially agricultural engineering, agronomy, mechanics, forestry and zootechnics. “The idea is to make an interactive digital edition in the next step and also make it available in other languages, such as Spanish and English, as teachers in Latin America and the United States have already demanded access to the work”, concluded the author.