Technological package will use satellite images to help coffee growers secure crops

The weather this year has kept many producers up at night, especially those who grow coffee. Long months of drought and short days of rain had already had an impact on the harvest since the beginning of 2021. However, in July, the scenario, which was no longer good, became even worse with heavy frosts in the main grain producing regions. According to the National Supply Company (Conab), the impacts of low temperatures affected more than 20% of hectares of Arabica coffee, the most cultivated variety in Brazilian lands.

In Minas Gerais, the country's main producing state, it is estimated that 156 thousand hectares were affected, representing a loss of four million bags of coffee in 2022. In São Paulo, almost all plantations in the state suffered some type of damage, which will result in losses, which are still being accounted for, at least, until 2024. With these producers in mind, DVA Agro is launching Mais Café, a unique technological package in Brazil.

The big difference with this new feature is that coffee farmers from Minas Gerais and São Paulo who subscribe to the solution, in addition to counting on the fertilizers that DVA brings to Brazil, will also have access, at no additional cost, to exclusive agricultural climate insurance. “No input company has ever offered a package of products, with climate insurance included, even more so, without the producer having to pay anything extra for it”, says Bruno Francischelli, agronomist and marketing coordinator at DVA in Brazil .

Strategic partnership

The DVA initiative was developed in partnership with the Dutch company VanderSat, which uses its technology to measure the amount of water in the soil via satellite. “When we measure soil moisture, we have very important data and they have a real-time reading that supplies a database with a 20-year history”, says Francischelli.

Completing the tripod of the new technological package is an important insurance partner that will provide parametric insurance that uses soil moisture data obtained by VanderSat as a parameter. According to the agronomist, the solution will work in a very safe and objective way. There is a soil moisture curve for the entire year, when a variation in that curve is noticed, the insurance is activated. At the same time, the producer can monitor, via his computer, how much moisture is present in the soil of his coffee plantations. When this indication drops drastically he will be reimbursed by insurance. “This is the first novelty, parametric insurance in Brazil with great precision. It measures municipality by municipality, and if necessary, it can measure up to hectare by hectare. It’s much more specific data”, he highlights.

Still according to Francischelli, with the new solution that is being made available to the market, the producer will not be held hostage to just one tool, which is conventional agricultural insurance, the only option until now for climate risk. “In addition to being very expensive, the Government needs to pay for part of this insurance, which we call a subsidy. In this technological package that we are offering, in an unprecedented way to coffee producers, it is DVA who is providing this subsidy, but in full, as coffee growers will not pay anything extra for it”, he reinforces.

In addition to not having an additional cost for inputs that producers traditionally already need to buy, the other big advantage is that they can manage their risks. “This risk management is our objective, as it is something that coffee growers normally do not pay attention to and we, as DVA, strengthen this concept”, adds the marketing coordinator.

The company's idea is to expand the technological package to other crops, but at the moment the focus is on consolidating Mais Café. “We need to learn from it, feel from the farmer himself. Because it is something new, we need to explain all the details of its entire production, we are ensuring it at our cost. It’s a small part, but it’s a great start”, adds the agronomist.

Products that make up the package

Mais Café will consist of fertilizers that will meet the coffee plantations’ needs for stimulation and micronutrients. Among the products are: Incentia Eco Humic, Incentia Eco Maximaxi, Incentia MG Mix, KBZN Plus and K 62.