Connectivity is a gigantic challenge for agriculture, says president of Embrapa

Brazilian agribusiness is one of the largest sectors of the economy and had a record growth of 24,31% in GDP last year, in addition to accounting for a third of new jobs in Brazil. Embrapa, which recently turned 48 years old, has a great contribution to this scenario: The Company annually publishes the so-called Social Report which showed, in 2020, the generation of R$61,85 billion in social profit, that is, for every R$1 invested in Embrapa, the Company returned R$17,77 to Brazilian society, contributing to the generation of 41.475 direct jobs.

The data were presented by the president of Embrapa, Celso Moretti, at the 7th National Meeting of the Brazil 5.0 Ecosystem in Action, held this Monday (14/06). He highlighted that, despite the good results, Brazilian agriculture has a long way to go. In his view, Brazil has a set of social, economic, scientific and technological challenges to overcome, such as the need to reduce the cost of digital technologies. “Digital agriculture has advanced a lot. Today, more than 84% of producers use at least one digital technology, but only 30% of rural properties are connected to the internet. There is a mismatch and this is a gigantic challenge for our sector”, stated the president of Embrapa.

Celso Moretti, invited to the panel “Contributions of Agro in the Digital Economy”, stated that the country must seek solutions aimed at expanding connectivity: “we cannot continue thinking about expanding agro and developing digital-based technologies if we continue with this limitation brutal connectivity. There are properties where there is an internet signal only in the main house and not throughout the property, for example. We need solutions to break down the barrier of connection restrictions so that agriculture has all the potential it needs in Brazil”, he defended.

Participating in the first day of the event, Moretti presented the evolution of digital transformation in the agricultural chain and the impact of this evolution on the growth of Brazilian GDP, aligned with the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance - in Portuguese: Corporate, Environmental and Social Governance) agenda. from Embrapa. “We are a technological innovation company focused on generating knowledge, technologies and solutions for Brazilian agriculture. Embrapa’s business is to provide solutions to Brazilian agricultural problems”, he highlighted.

Embrapa, which, according to Moretti, has the mission of enabling research, development and innovation solutions for the sustainability of agriculture, for the benefit of Brazilian society, has the ESG agenda as a central piece in the development of solutions. “Sustainability is in the DNA of our Company. From the beginning we have worked in a very focused way, linking our agenda to the objectives of sustainable development, and digital transformation is at the basis of this recent development of Brazilian agriculture”, he confirmed.

The expectation by 2030, according to President Moretti, is that digital transformations, together with bioinformatics and biotechnology, will promote even more advances to impact the different areas of animal and plant production, resulting in more sustainable products, with better nutritional quality and safety. . And the Company has promoted very strong progress with regard to digital transformation in the field. “The majority of our 43 research centers are working on innovations focused on digital solutions, in pre-production, production and post-production in agriculture. I have no doubt that Brazil, by 2030, will be one of the biggest protagonists in the production of food, fiber and bioenergy, also advancing in low-carbon agriculture issues,” he declared.

Celso Moretti also presented examples of Embrapa solutions in digital agriculture: applications for information from Agricultural Climate Risk Zoning (Zarc), which allows Brazilian producers to know what, when and where to plant safely; analysis and management of large volume biological sequencing data; technological platform on Brazilian soils, PronaSolos; use of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles to count plants and livestock; and the development of digital tools for ESG valuation. 

Another example of a technological solution mentioned by the president was Radar Agtech, a partnership between Embrapa and SP Ventures and Homo Ludens Research & Consulting. This is a mapping of Brazilian agricultural startups and the main source of information for those who want to know the segment. The survey carried out by Radar between 2019 and 2021 showed a 40% growth in startups focused on agriculture in the Northeast. “If there is an agriculture in the world that is well equipped, from a technological point of view, it is Brazilian agriculture. All of this would not be possible if we did not have an entire apparatus of digital transformation tools linked to this reality,” said Moretti.

The online event was held by the MicroPower Institute for Digital Transformation and was attended by the director of Teaching and Research at Hospital Sírio Libanês, Luiz Reis; Air Major Brigadier Luiz Ricardo, Advisor to Brazil 5.0; and other representatives of the Institute. “It is a pleasure to participate in such an important and relevant event for global digital transformation and to be able to share a little of what we do”, stated the president of Embrapa.