SkyAgri and Avant enter into partnership for applications in crops in the southern half of Rio Grande do Sul

SkyAgri, a drone farming company (Porto Alegre/RS), and Avant Sementes (Cascavel/PR), a consultancy and input company, have signed a partnership to provide spraying or seeding services using drones for rural producers in the southern half of Rio Grande do Sul . The signing took place during the 30th Official Opening of the Rice Harvest, which ended on Friday (14) in Capão do Leão/RS, and comes in the wake of positive feedback from trials carried out by partnerships in the region. Through the partnership, SkyAgri provides the equipment, technical assistance and improvements that are applied to unmanned devices, while Avant Sementes, which already sells inputs, will also provide application services with drones.

“We are bringing to aerial application a niche that is still outside of agricultural aviation, such as spraying work in smaller areas, such as tobacco, fruit and commercial forests. In addition to auctions for soybeans, corn, rice and other crops – in points very close to sensitive areas or with many obstacles”, explains the director of SkyAgri Eugênio Schröder. “In fact, we are replacing sprayers
coastal areas”, emphasizes the businessman and agronomist. “And filling gaps in the land themselves”, he adds, referring, for example, to the application of seeds that are too small for adequate regulation in tractor systems.

PIONEERING
Avant Sementes was represented at the signing by agronomist Talles Soares Rosa. Schröder was also accompanied by SkyAgri's Marketing Director, Fausto Zanin. The signing also had an important symbolic aspect, as it took place near Pelotas. “In addition to being the birthplace of Brazilian agricultural aviation, in 1947, the municipality was the place where the first real application of herbicide by SkyAgri took place, in 2017”, highlights Schröder. SkyAgri already operates with spraying drones in rice, soybean, forest, corn, sugar cane, fruit and other crops in Bahia, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso de Sul, São Paulo, Santa Catarina and Paraná , in addition to other regions of Rio Grande do Sul.

For the new partner of the unmanned technology supplier, the expectation is to multiply customers, due to the good response to experimental services. “We had a good response among producers who invested in the tool and the facilities and efficiency of drones should greatly expand this market”, summarizes Talles Soares.