Sindag should help Mapa and the RS government with a strategy against locusts

The National Union of Agricultural Aviation Companies (Sindag) will participate in the effort to develop a strategy to combat locusts in the south of the country, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Secretariat of Agriculture of RS. The information was confirmed by the executive director of Sindag, Gabriel Colle, after a conversation with the head of the State Secretariat, Covatti Filho. The secretary had spoken shortly before with minister Tereza Cristina, who in turn had already expressed the intention to the agency's Agricultural Aviation coordinator, Uéllen Colatto.

Still on Tuesday morning, the aeroagricultural union had sent letters to Covatti and Tereza Cristina. The documents warned about the risk of locust clouds advancing across Argentina and offered help from the aeroagricultural entity. “Agricultural aviation is considered one of the main weapons worldwide in combating locust clouds”, highlights Colle.

The tool is used in this type of operation, including in actions by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Africa. Not by chance, it was decisive for the emergence of the sector in Brazil, in 1947, in Rio Grande do Sul. The first Brazilian agricultural flight was on August 19 of that year, against locusts that were decimating crops in the Pelotas region.

Rio Grande do Sul has the second largest aero-agricultural fleet in Brazil, with 426 planes. In turn, Brazil has the second largest and one of the best agricultural aviation in the world, with 2.280 aircraft.