Conab carries out soy and rice mapping in Rio Grande do Sul

Technicians from the National Supply Company (Conab) are in the field to begin mapping work on soybeans and rice in Rio Grande do Sul, based on remote sensing. The visits began in the first week of January and aim to locate the areas cultivated with the oilseed, in addition to collecting information on the development and progress of the grain harvest in the state. The action, carried out in partnership with the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), also aims to improve methodologies for monitoring the agricultural harvest in the country.

During this second stage of the work, Conab teams will identify soybean and rice crops in a sample space defined by random draw, followed by remote sensing methodology with the collaboration of Inpe. The main information collected on site with soybeans already sown and in development are: the registration and geographic location of soybean crops, identification of crops and the phases of their evolution.

The field operation is part of a set of four stages of the general soybean mapping work in Rio Grande do Sul. In the first phase, work was carried out in the office with the selection of checkpoints. In total, 30 blocks were drawn in the state. Each block has 20 points to be checked. Next, field verification, block mapping and area estimation take place. The expectation is that field work will be completed by March, covering all regions producing the selected crops in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Since 2005, Conab has been mapping agricultural crops with the aim of complementing field data on summer, winter, second harvest, coffee and sugar cane crops. These surveys are generated using images available from low, medium and high resolution satellites to identify cultivated areas in the main producing states, in addition to agroclimatic monitoring of annual and permanent crops.