Elevagro launches Play Elevagro, a course and learning trail platform for agribusiness

Elevagro announced the launch of Play Elevagro, a subscription platform for the agribusiness sector. It is a solution that brings varied content on practices and strategies in different cultures, health management, as well as topics related to commercial management. All content entirely aimed at professionals in the sector. The platform fulfills the role of a guided knowledge journey, combining learning paths and different content formats (such as infographics, quizzes, e-books, videos and webinars) to make learning more dynamic.

When launching its new solution, agricultural edtech has been seeking to adapt to a new type of online learning approach: microlearning, whose strategy seeks to share small doses of knowledge according to the professional's demand. It is a way of rethinking education and professional training – a timely action that meets important statistics in this sector.

Knowledge as a lever for agribusiness

A survey carried out in 2020 with 384 Brazilian farmers showed that 36% obtained knowledge for the application of agricultural pesticides exclusively from family practice or guidance. This demonstrates that there are knowledge gaps to be filled, especially when we consider recent technological advances and the increased complexity of agricultural management.

“In fact, much of the research produced in the world remains on academic shelves, with limited access to researchers and scientists. Only a small percentage of everything produced reaches the final consumer (in this case, the rural producer, agronomist or agricultural technician)”, says Ricardo Balardin, Co-founder and Board Member of Elevagro.

Balardin also states that he had already begun to see, at least twenty years ago, the distance between the academy and the field. According to him, this distance would bring, in the following years, an intense intellectual lag in the sector. Based on this, Play Elevagro's promise is to sow essential information for the new agriculture, training producers to face the new challenges of agribusiness:

“[...] The scenario we are experiencing today shows that we were right, but we still didn’t know that everything would happen so quickly and so forcefully, and that the demand for education and content would be so diverse and sought through different means — with emphasis on digital. However, amidst this variety, there are courses that do not prioritize the quality of the content offered. Unfortunately, this tendency is driven by a search for ready-made answers, rather than valuing the process of learning and reflection. This has resulted in the proliferation of courses that may not fully meet students’ expectations”, he concludes.

A sector in transformation

The period of transformation we are experiencing brings with it opportunities and challenges for agribusiness. Reaching a share of 24,8% of the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022, the sector has also been breaking some successive records – which is reflected in greater demand in the job market and a greater need for more qualified professionals.

“We are at a time of transformation in agribusiness, where qualification and education of the entire base become imperative, both for the more tactical workers and for those who have more executive roles in the sector. We are experiencing significant change, with the demand for food increasing in a scenario of pressure for maximum sustainability. In this context, digitalization becomes a powerful transformation tool, driving important changes in other aspects”, comments Alexandre Chequim, Co-founder and Board Member at Elevagro.

Play Elevagro brings a vast catalog of dynamic content to subscribers, allowing them to enjoy a wide variety of agribusiness courses. With the purpose of offering greater training and technical security to professionals, they will be able to obtain technical knowledge to support their decisions and seek information for managing the business as a whole.

“This tool enables inclusion and education, providing essential information for the new agriculture and training producers for this new stage of agribusiness. Both small, medium and large producers as well as established companies of different sizes and service providers, whether traditional, consultants or agronomists, can benefit from this platform”, argues Chequim.

The Play Elevagro platform currently has dozens of courses covering the main planting crops and topics related to pest and disease management, and should be continuously fed and updated in the coming months.

Regarding the innovation factor, Chequim states that we need to advance in the field of technology: “[however], it is important to highlight that our proposal is differentiated more by the processes, relationships with the market and methodology used. Although we seek to differentiate ourselves in technological innovation, the solution we offer already stands out in the market as a unique option.”