Cotton harvester prototype will benefit family farmers

A prototype single-line cotton harvester, adapted for small production areas, will benefit family farmers in Brazil and in partner countries of the + Cotton project: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, Paraguay and Peru. The prototype, developed by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), a technical institution cooperating with the project, had its first tests started in 2019 in Brazil, in the municipality of São Desidério, in Bahia. It has also been tested in research areas in the municipalities of Barbalha, in Ceará, and Apodi, in Rio Grande do Norte.

This year, the validation process continues in other states, with the machine being transported for testing in the city of Catuti, in the north of Minas Gerais.

Developed by Embrapa Algodão researchers, Odilon Reny Ribeiro and Valdinei Sofiatti, the single-row harvester prototype can harvest 1 hectare every 3,5 hours, equivalent to 120 hectares in 30 days. With a first validation yield of 389 kg of cotton fiber per hectare and a 70% lower cost compared to manual harvesting, this prototype, when validated, could become a highly viable option for small cotton producers in Latin America, as well as for their organizations and cooperatives.

For the validation tests of this technology in Catuti, an agreement was signed within the scope of the +Algodão regional project between the Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ABC/MRE), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and the Catuti Cotton Producers Cooperative (Coopercat).

Coopercat will be responsible for transporting the mechanized harvester from Campina Grande, in Paraíba - headquarters of Embrapa Algodão - to Catuti, in Minas Gerais, covering a distance of approximately 1.500 kilometers. In Catuti, 80 hectares will be harvested in areas that belong to family farmers associated with Coopercat, a cooperative that is part of the Minas Gerais Association of Cotton Producers (Amipa). According to Lício Augusto de Sairre, executive director of Amipa, the harvester prototype will be of “fundamental importance for farmers in the North of Minas”. 

The director of the Association explains that mechanized harvesting brings several benefits to small farmers, since manual harvesting generates high production costs and the difficulty of obtaining skilled labor available to go to the field. Furthermore, Lício de Sairre explains that manual harvesting generates a great risk of contamination of the cotton fiber since when groups of workers are placed to harvest the cotton manually, the cotton fiber is contaminated by materials that these workers take to the farm, such as example, plastic packaging. The director of Amipa adds that the market prefers to buy cotton that is harvested non-manually, that is, using a mechanized harvester to avoid this type of contamination.

Monitoring of field tests

With the monitoring system for validation tests with the machine, fortnightly activity recording reports will be obtained, as well as photographic records. In addition, monthly meetings will be held with all project partners to evaluate the results. Embrapa will provide technical support through video calls. According to the director of Amipa, the Association will also support tests with laboratory analysis in Uberlândia of the quality of the cotton fiber that will be harvested in Catuti with the prototype harvester.

After field validation, the machine development process is expected to continue in the project's partner countries, together with Embrapa and the technical institutions in these countries. “We are very optimistic about the machine's work and these steps are important to check possible problems that may arise and serve small producers not only in Brazil, but all farmers in the + Algodão project”, says Odilon Ribeiro, researcher at Embrapa . The objective is to facilitate and promote access to new technologies and innovations for field work in family farming, within the scope of the Trilateral South-South + Cotton cooperation project.

about the machine

Embrapa Algodão researcher Odilon Reny Ribeiro says that the idea of ​​proposing a project to develop a small harvester with FAO came from an old need among small cotton producers. “Cotton is an extremely important crop and was once cultivated in large areas in the Northeast by small producers. But today, rural activities are very difficult because labor is increasingly scarce in rural areas. Therefore, cotton cultivation by small producers is currently almost insignificant compared to corporate cultivation,” he explains.

The machine is an adaptation of picker-type harvesters, which harvest the cotton through spindles and soil the cotton very little. “The machine has already been tested in large plantations in Bahia, with areas of high technology and productivity, with very good performance, equal to that of a machine with 5-6 lines”, he says.

In preliminary tests, the cotton harvested in the machine showed around 4,5% to 5,5% of impurities, “which is considered normal in relation to picker-type harvesters, and harvest losses were around 4 at 5%”.

After the tests in Minas Gerais, the machine goes to Alagoinha, PB, Barbalha, CE and Ibimirim, PE, where the final tests and demonstrations will be carried out with the producers before the launch scheduled for the end of the year.

For ABC/MRE and FAO, this innovation is considered a technological advance in favor of family farming in Latin America, which faces a major challenge with manual cotton harvesting.

Regarding the prototype under development for cotton-producing family farmers, Adriana Gregolin, coordinator of the +Algodão project, points out that one of the project's lines of action is precisely "to connect initiatives from cotton-producing countries in Latin America, to seek innovations in terms of research, machines, sustainable management and agricultural production techniques, among others, including different production models and producer segments”.

For testing the prototype on farmers' plots, Coopercat will follow all safety recommendations, given the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining social distancing measures and other measures necessary to guarantee health and avoid contagion of the virus by part of farmers and technicians.

More cotton in Latin America

The regional project + Algodão, started in 2013, is a trilateral South-South Cooperation initiative carried out by the Brazilian government, through ABC/MRE, FAO and seven partner countries, with the objective of contributing through the cotton- food to overcome rural poverty and ensure food and nutritional security. Through diversified production systems and a comprehensive view of the cotton value chain, cooperation initiatives are developed with countries through the exchange of good practices, promotion of innovations and technologies, generation of knowledge, among others.

“The +Algodão project aims at developing sustainable technologies and good production practices; the creation of strategic public-private alliances; the strengthening of associations among producers; and the generation of new opportunities for accessing markets, in an inclusive and sustainable way”, concludes Adriana Gregolin, the project's regional coordinator.