Disruptive technologies impact Brazilian agriculture

The use of tools, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly incorporated into crop monitoring, transforming the countryside landscape and changing the way of managing them, bringing positive economic and environmental impacts to agriculture. They are able to go, observe and collect information with their onboard sensors, replacing visual inspections, which are more laborious and time-consuming, speeding up tasks and decision-making. This is what so-called disruptive technologies do.

The term popularized among young entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, a nickname for the San Francisco Bay region, in California (USA), where several high-technology companies are located, is present in several segments, as well as in agriculture. Disruptive technologies cause a break with already established standards or models, bringing improvements in the cost-benefit ratio of processes and their performance.

 The researcher at Embrapa Instrumentação (São Carlos – SP), Lúcio André de Castro Jorge, works on the development of technologies with disruptive potential for the areas of automation and precision agriculture. Specialist in processing images captured by different types of drones, he studies the use of these vehicles as a low-cost and non-destructive method for estimating pests, diseases and deficiencies in cotton, soybean, sugar cane, fruit crops, irrigated rice and pasture, in addition to different sensors.

“We use multi and hyperspectral sensors to develop tools and software for non-destructive monitoring, easy to operate and with direct application in mapping cultivated areas”, he states. According to him, the biggest challenge is to transform the data captured into knowledge for decision-making by rural producers, so that the information adds value and brings profitability.

The doctor in signal processing and instrumentation from the School of Engineering of the University of São Paulo (USP) explains that there are numerous types of drones and auxiliary tools on the market, such as sensors and cameras, which, combined with processing efficiency, will determine the quality of the information and that will impact decision-making.

According to data registered in the Unmanned Aircraft System (Sisant), of the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac), among the 79.673 devices for general use, 1.492 drones are for agricultural use. “There is still a lot of room for growth, considering the potential that Brazilian agriculture should assume in the coming years as a protagonist in food generation, not only for the country, but for the world”, says Castro Jorge.

Embrapa Instrumentação stands out for developing new methods, sensors and equipment that produce data more quickly, with greater reliability and more economically viable, that is, the instruments that enable digital agriculture in agriculture. To contribute to meeting the demands of agriculture 4.0 more quickly, the thematic center forms partnerships with startups and companies from different segments, especially in the open innovation model, in which the partner already participates in the research project in its initial phase.

Vans potential

The use of drones in precision agriculture, advances, potential applications, sensors will be discussed this Wednesday (14/04), at 10 am, at the V National Congress of Agricultural Sciences, organized by the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the National University of Asunción, Paraguay. The event will be held between the 14th and 16th, virtually, due to the new coronavirus pandemic. More information at https://www.congresocienciasagrarias.com/.

The fifth edition aims to present technical-scientific advances in the area of ​​agricultural sciences and offer a platform for the exchange of knowledge and experiences of professionals linked to agricultural, environmental and forestry development in Paraguay.