Monitora Ferrugem RS Program helps manage soybean crops

The Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development (SEAPDR) and Emater/RS-Ascar created a tool to assist soybean farmers in managing Asian soybean rust: the Monitora Rust RS Program, available at www.agricultura.rs.gov.br/monitora-ferrugem-rs. 

The program publishes weekly data with information on detecting the presence of spores associated with meteorological conditions, generating maps indicating the predisposition of the occurrence of Asian rust in producing regions. “This is important information for decision-making by technicians and producers, to adopt measures to manage the disease”, explains Ricardo Felicetti, head of the Plant Health Defense Division at SEAPDR. 

Monitora Ferrugem RS was implemented in the 2019/2020 harvest, and in the current harvest it was improved to include information on meteorological conditions, such as rainfall, temperature and leaf wetness. The data is generated by the Agroclimatic Monitoring and Alerts System (Simagro-RS), from SEAPDR. 

In addition to the Secretariat and Emater/RS-Ascar, the following entities are involved in the Monitora Ferrugem RS Program: University of Passo Fundo (UPF), Embrapa Clima Temperado, Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS) Câmpus Ibirubá, Sociedade Educacional Três de Maio (Setrem), State University of Rio Grande do Sul (Uergs), Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Integrated Regional University of Alto Uruguai and Missions (URI) Santiago Campus, Federal University of Pampa (Unipampa) Itaqui Campus and São Gabriel, Federal University of Fronteira Sul (UFFS) and University of Cruz Alta (Unicruz).