National equipment manages pesticide spraying precision and optimizes cost management on rural properties

Developed jointly by the Engineering and Automation Center of the Agronomic Institute (CEA-IAC) - an entity of the Department of Agriculture and Supply of the State of SP -, the company X-Factory and IMA - Instituto Mato-Grossense do Algodão, the DropScope system will be launched today at Agrishow. According to researchers, it is an innovative precision agriculture tool, designed for rural producers to obtain agro-economic efficiency in the applications of agricultural pesticides.

In the testing, research and validation of scientific results stage, the developers inform, the DropScope system resulted in a drop of up to 30% in the costs of treatments with agricultural pesticides, mainly due to the reduction of waste.

Director of Research & Development at X-Factory, businessman Edson Minatel highlights that the new technology will be made available to the market in the form of a kit, consisting of an application for cell phones and tablets (app), a specific mini digital microscope and DropCard, a digital card made from a special paper, imported from Switzerland, sensitive to water (water sensitive). He emphasizes that the kit is small and easily transportable to farming areas.

The scientific researcher at CEA-IAC in the city of Jundiaí, Hamilton Ramos, explains that the DropCard card, the 'brain of the DropScope system', allows an agronomist to quickly analyze technical indicators linked to agricultural spraying. The DropCard, highlights Ramos, works connected to the app and the mini digital microscope.

“Each DropCard consists of a barcode (QRCode) and a yellow area sensitive to water. Carefully placed on plants delimited by a crop test area, these cards capture and fix on their surface the drops from spraying, which are registered in blue,” describes Ramos.

After the test spraying, adds the researcher, each DropCard has the image of its surface transferred to the computer screen, presenting to the user all the parameters of the phytosanitary treatment: quantity of drops incident on plants, size of these drops, percentage of coverage of the farming and data relating to the regulation of agricultural sprayers.

“From the evaluation of this set of data, the system points out the necessary adjustments for the adequate phytosanitary treatment of the entire target crop”, observes Hamilton Ramos.

Minatel, from X-Factory, explains that the assembly of the DropCard It also includes a water-resistant area, so that the user can handle and attach the product to plants without any contamination being recorded on the water-sensitive part of the card during this process.

“The DropCard also contains a unique identifier, read by the camera of cell phones equipped with the DropScope app, which records all spraying data using GPS, including time, location, area of ​​the plant marked with the card and others”, explains Minatel .

System developers DropScope state that the new tool is easy to use and self-explanatory. According to them, in addition to providing step-by-step guidance on the control of pests, diseases and weeds, the resource allows you to interfere with spraying in order to reduce costs with water, fuel and labor.

X-Factory Inovações Tecnológicas, a company based in the São Paulo city of São Carlos, believes that the DropScope system will be adopted by small, medium and large producers, “due to the excellent cost-benefit ratio it transfers to properties”, says Minatel. According to him, the company's goal is to gain at least 500 users for the tool this year.