Network provides meteorological information to farmers in the Semiarid region

Climatic data from a network of 16 meteorological stations maintained by Embrapa Semiárido (PE), in addition to serving scientific research, now also encompasses all historical data made freely available for access by interested parties. The service aims to support the work of researchers and students and assist technicians and farmers in production decisions based on agrometeorological data.

At the stations, information is generated on temperature and relative humidity, wind speed, reference evapotranspiration, global solar radiation and precipitation. The network has equipment distributed in different locations in the sub-middle region of the São Francisco Valley, encompassing Embrapa areas and partner properties, in the states of Pernambuco, Bahia and Sergipe.

As of 2023, the form of data presentation has undergone modernization. Until 2022, the information was made available through tables on the Embrapa website, and the producer only had access to data from the last two months. "We received several requests from technicians to consult the complete database, but in the old availability structure it was not possible to organize this information", explains researcher Magna Soelma Beserra de Moura, responsible for managing the network of stations.

Now with the new website, any user can check the history of agrometeorological stations, from the date of installation of each station, which differs from each other. “We have more than twenty years of data available. This is very important information for studies and assessments of the region’s climate patterns.”

The tool chosen to organize the database was the Google Analytics dashboard, which has a user-friendly design and interactive format. When opening the stations website, just choose the one you are interested in and select the period for viewing. A panel with graphs and tables is automatically updated.

The scientist also highlights another improvement to the service: the possibility of downloading categorized information. “It’s a modern format that will bring many benefits to producers in the Semiarid region”, she adds.

Use of data

According to the researcher, producers who access climate information basically have two objectives: carry out crop irrigation management or carry out integrated pest management, depending on the pest present on the property.

For irrigation management, when accessing the website, the producer can search for reference evapotranspiration data, compute the number of hours and then calculate the amount of water needed to irrigate the crop.

“In the São Francisco Valley region, irrigation management is carried out daily, sometimes two or three times a day, depending on the intensity of the sun and crop conditions. Thus, in practice, producers make a daily or weekly schedule, in this case accumulating a week's worth of evapotranspiration data to calculate the amount of water to be applied to the crops”, explains Moura.

In relation to integrated pest management, the researcher emphasizes that each pest has a range of temperature and relative humidity that is ideal for its development. “By knowing this climate data and the pests present, producers can anticipate actions and obtain greater efficiency in control within the property”, she points out.

Periodicity

Currently, all stations that make up the Embrapa Semiárido agrometeorological network are automatic when it comes to obtaining data in the field, but the transmission of information to the server is done manually. For this reason, it is still necessary to travel for collection and subsequent updating on the website.

“For some stations located on partner farms, the farm's own technician collects the data and sends it to us by email, speeding up the process. For the others, we schedule collection trips every week. Therefore, the average supply of information to the website is weekly”, reports Moura.

Deployment history

The first agrometeorological stations in the São Francisco Valley were installed in the 1960s, by the Northeast Development Superintendency (Sudene), in the irrigated perimeters of Bebedouro (Petrolina, PE) and Mandacaru (Juazeiro, BA).

These stations were responsible for the climatic characterization of the Sub-middle São Francisco Valley. Technicians and producers used the data to define irrigation system parameters based on potential evapotranspiration, information that helped to size the projects, depending on the crops to be irrigated.

Embrapa Semiárido took over the management of the two Sudene stations from the 1970s, as well as the database generated. Over time, the network grew, and conventional stations were replaced by automatic stations.

“What we had conventionally, which required an observer to go to the field three times a day, during standard World Meteorological Organization [WMO] time, to collect data, the automatic stations do every 30 minutes. This advance allowed the generation of a greater amount of data and more precise information,” reports the researcher.

In the 2000s, with the implementation of the Integrated Fruit Production (PIF) program in the Lower São Francisco Valley, the network was expanded, reaching ten stations, distributed on farms producing mango and grapes, as well as in the experimental fields of Embrapa.

Today there are 16 automatic stations operating in three states in the Semi-Arid region. In Pernambuco, the stations are distributed in the municipalities of Lagoa Grande and Petrolina; in Bahia, there are stations in Pilar, Juazeiro and Casa Nova; In Sergipe, the equipment was installed in the municipality of Nossa Senhora da Glória. Conventional stations were deactivated.

According to the researcher, the perspective is to continue maintaining the equipment already installed, enabling the generation of quality data, and evaluating the expansion of the network, depending on new investments.