Embrapa and Sindag extend cooperation for new studies on aerial pest control

Embrapa and the National Union of Agricultural Aviation Companies (Sindag) extended, until March 2025, technical cooperation for new studies on aerial spraying with chemical and biological products for aerial pest control, in crops aimed at food and energy security . This stage includes new partners and technologies for agricultural production, such as the use of drones, in addition to manned aircraft.

The focus will be on four crops - rice, cotton, corn and soybeans - with three areas of action: control of drift (deviation that occurs when spraying in agricultural applications); metrology (quality and effectiveness of measurements); and pest control (fundamental in a country with a tropical climate like Brazil).

To contribute to the production of food and bioenergy in plantations that use aerial spraying, the new stage involves eight Embrapa research centers, where developments and experiments will be carried out: Instrumentation (SP), Environment (SP), Corn and Sorghum ( MG), Cerrados (DF), Cassava and Fruit Culture (BA), Cotton (PB), Soy (PR) and Temperate Climate (RS),

The partnership also includes the federal universities of Lavras and Uberlândia, USP and the Federal Institute of Primavera do Leste, as well as the Agricultural Defense Secretariat of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply - to build an intelligence network that can discuss the sector's own public policy (plant health).

Greater control and less impact

“We are talking about a highly complex (non-linear) environment, which requires research action to be able to guide a process based on good practices, which bring better control results and less environmental and social impact to the production process itself”, explains the researcher from Embrapa Instrumentação, Paulo Cruvinel.

Embrapa's technical coordinator recalls that “there is no single solution for everything”, which is why adaptive systems will be tested including, alongside manned agricultural aircraft, the use of drones (unmanned) with spraying systems, and ground control. Advanced machine learning, artificial intelligence and smart sensors technologies will be used to apply the biological realities of crop pests.

According to the president of Sindag, Thiago Magalhães Silva, the definition of projects and the search for resources for research should take place in the coming months and, from there, the schedule will be implemented in the field. In Brazil there are around 2,3 aircraft, the second largest aero-agricultural fleet in the world, behind only the United States (3,6).

From locusts to precision agriculture

Aeroagricultural pest control in Brazil began in 1947, due to a locust plague in the region of Pelotas (RS). The partnership between Embrapa and Sindag began in 2008; Between 2013 and 2017, the project “Development of Aerial Application of Pesticides as a Strategy for Controlling Agricultural Pests of National Interest” was carried out, which delivered 92% of the expected results of studies in soybean, rice and sugarcane crops in the South , Southeast and Midwest.

In Cruvinel's assessment, for the new project, the technological evolution of industry and agriculture 4.0 points to the control carried out by machines that operate collectively, and the localized application for the control of pests or invasive plants, based on the concepts of Precision Agriculture.

“We seek to optimize the best equipment for the specific pest, employing scientific and technical knowledge that needs to take into account the agronomic factor, the climate, the soil of the researched region, to ensure that the researched crops are increasingly competitive”, he concludes. the researcher.