Cocamar proposes an unprecedented climate forecasting system in the country for the northwest of Paraná

Cocamar Cooperativa Agroindustrial and three associations of municipalities in the northwest region of Paraná have just formalized an agreement to create an unprecedented Collaborative Network in the country. The initiative aims to obtain more assertiveness in weather forecasting and climate analysis and, thus, have a tool to assist public managers in planning works, guide rural producers in planning their crops and support civil defense in monitoring extreme events , among other purposes.

Initially involving 60 municipalities within a radius of 16,5 thousand square kilometers, the Network is an innovation proposed by Cocamar, which has been working with advanced post-processing services for weather forecast data for five years. Among the largest in its sector in the state, the cooperative already has a network of 55 meteorological stations installed on properties of cooperative producers and spread across several regions. 

To this was added a Swiss technology for post-processing the data collected at the stations, provided by Meteoblue, which allows achieving accuracy rates above 80% in short-term forecasts.

Reliable technology

Through this technology, users will have access to a range of more reliable images and data, which will be made available on the cooperative's website, city halls and in an application. “This is how storms and climate fluctuations in the United States and Europe are monitored”, mentioned executive president Divanir Higino, while also informing that the system allows “live” monitoring with updates every 15 minutes and positively infers on the forecast calculations up to 14 days.

According to Higino, the cooperative aims to help develop regions and, through this Collaborative Network, will provide strategic and quality information at the service of users in the countryside and in cities. He explains that “this is not a common meteorological service, but rather the implementation of a sophisticated structure that does not yet exist in Brazil and Latin America, capable of raising the level of information in this area to a new level”. 

System planning and sharing

The idea, according to Luiz Lourenço, president of the Board of Directors of Cocamar, is to disseminate this system also among other cooperatives, through the Organization of Cooperatives of the State of Paraná (Ocepar), companies and raise awareness among the State government, “given the importance of this predictability for the safety of the population and taking into account that agriculture is the flagship of the state economy”, he added.

“In agriculture, the system will help producers in their planning. If the expectation is for rain in a week, for example, he rearranges his calendar in order to avoid possible losses and take advantage of the most favorable moment”, observed superintendent Leandro Cezar Teixeira.

Auditable data 

The technical executive manager, Renato Watanabe, explains that the Collaborative Network will be a mesh of auditable data that will assist in important tools for producers, such as rural insurance. “The system works like a meteorological radar with a three-hour view, tracking the movement of clouds and rain and the information is processed on Meteoblue supercomputers in Switzerland,” added Watanabe, reinforcing that the initiative will have a direct impact on municipal management, benefiting the inhabitants of the region – urban population and rural producers – with more accurate data and alerts.

The Network's technical coordinator, Leonardo Dante, said that the program is developed in four stages: the first, the implementation of the platform in municipalities; the second, provides for a technical study of monitoring points; the third will be the implementation of the network of stations; and, fourth, the configuration and activation of post-processing, through Nowcasting. 

Municipalities participate by supporting the collaborative network and contracting the same monitoring platform with advanced satellite services and post-processing of network data by multi-model artificial intelligence (AI).

New points 

After studying the terrain by a technical team, the municipalities also commit to integrating new monitoring points into the Network, that is, between 2 and 4 stations in each. The objective, in the network's 16,5 thousand square kilometer area, is to have 200 stations and Cocamar alone was responsible for integrating 35 monitoring points.

September - The expectation is that, with the membership of the associations, the service will be 100% active in September, the month in which the sowing of the next summer crop begins, and before the normally more intense rainy season.

Signing the term 

The cooperation agreement was signed at the cooperative's headquarters, in Maringá, by mayor Crisógono Júnior, aka Juninho, president of the Association of Municipalities of Northern Paranaense (Amusep); Júlio Leite, president of the Association of Municipalities of the Northwest of the State of Paraná (Amunpar); and Agnaldo Trevisan, president of the Association of Municipalities of the Middle Northwest of the State of Paraná (Amenorte).