Today, more than ever, equalizing productivity and sustainability is one of the major challenges facing the agribusiness industry. The need to produce more to meet increased demand is a reality and will require a collaborative effort to change strategies, investments in new solutions and innovation.
Technology in agribusiness has long been a great ally, especially when it comes to environmental matters.Today new technology is helping agriculture become more efficient, productive, and environmentally responsible more than ever before.
Guilherme Guiné, Product Manager at Solinftec, provides his insights into the technology and solutions that currently reduce environmental impacts.
What is the importance of using sustainable technologies?
According to Guilherme Guiné, in the current state of agribusiness, competitiveness between companies is not only linked to the volume produced, but mainly with the way in which production is developed.
Sustainable practices is something more and more common in the market. Because of this, consumers are interested in knowing and understanding the impacts of entire production chain of food.
“Implementing sustainable practices is no longer a‘ luxury ’for some producers and companies, but a real need to remain competitive in the global market,” Guilherme states. “However, using sustainable practices is not very simple, and requires a dose of determination on the part of producers, and it is precisely there that the technologies that support and promote sustainability can be great allies for producers.”
What are the main sustainable technologies today?
The role of technology in this to promote sustainability is to ensure a better use of resources - especially natural resources - so that the producer can improve his results, increase his profitability, but give up the sustainability of respect for the communities that are close to him.
Guilherme Guiné said the different sustainable technologies focus on the the application of inputs in a rational manner (flow controllers, autopilot), intelligent operation control systems (fleet monitoring, logistics systems), crop monitoring systems (satellite images, drones, soil analysis), crop management systems (cost control, production chain management, digital traceability, power generation systems from the sun, reuse of waste and other waste generated on the property to produce clean and renewable energy, and rainwater harvesting systems
For him, these are just some of the many options that can help producers, being practically impossible to list all available, since technology has shown itself to be increasingly present.
How can technology reduce environmental impacts in agribusiness?
Reducing environmental impact is one of the aspects of sustainability companies are focused on in agribusiness. Guilherme points out that it is very important to remember that it is not in the interest of agribusiness to destroy the environment, since this sector is one of the most negatively impacted by environmental changes.
For example, when there is a pest infestation - such as grasshoppers and other insects - urban companies do not feel the effects from this, but farmers can lose all their crops in just a few days.
Therefore, producers have been increasingly concerned with their environmental impacts and taking care of the environment in which they operate, in order to make it even more sustainable. This is an example of how technology can be an ally in the application of pesticides.
According to Guilherme Guiné, approximately 30% of the cost of producing a commodity is linked to pesticides (herbicides, fungicides, insecticides etc.), and it is not in the interest of the producer to carry out more applications, as this may cause a decrease business margin, in addition to causing an imbalance in the environment.
For this reason, many producers have used technologies like those of Solinftec, which allow the producer to know the best time to carry out the applications, considering the climate, the product to be applied and the location of the farms.
Thus, the product applied will have the best possible efficiency and the farmer will be able to reduce the volume of pesticide used, or even reduce the incidence of that pest on the crop - that is, everyone wins, the producer, the environment and the final consumer.
How can Solinftec solutions help the producer?
The technologies offered by Solinftec are focused on promoting increased efficiency on the part of farmers, taking care of the entire production chain, from the moment of planting until the harvest, so that the rural producer is sure that he is employing the best agricultural products.
Guilherme Guiné highlights, “We were able to increase the efficiency of the property, as we added the producer's vision to the process. As we have all the data in real time from the field, the producer does not lose anything of what is happening. Even if he is not in the field, he is able to manage his operations remotely and control possible deviations.”
In this context, Solinftec's solutions not only give more visibility about operations, but help in managing them, working together with the operator, guiding him (automatically) on the best way to operate a machine, for example, defining the ideal speed and developing a control of fuel consumption.
In addition, the tools also assist management teams through personalized reports, real-time alerts and ranking of best practices within their management - essential data for decision making and the strengthening of digital agriculture.
What are Solinftec's technology differentials for climate?
We developed a climate-based solution thinking not only about monitoring climatic conditions and showing them to the producer. In reality, the objective of our solution is to assist the producer in decision making, inserting the climate as one of the necessary and strategic variables to arrive at the best decision.
Guilherme Guiné points out that today there are several companies that provide climate monitoring services. However, the producer has to do the analysis of the climate conditions manually and decide if the climatic condition is ideal for the operation and only then notify the operator to stop or continue the operation.
What Solinftec did was simplify this whole process. That is, the weather station itself communicates with the operator, showing him the changes in the weather, in real-time, and suggesting some action if the climatic conditions are not ideal.
With this, it is possible to have more agility and the security that the operation will be carried out in the best possible way, even if the manager is not close, because the system manages the operation for him in an automated way.
In addition, climatic data can be used for cross-checking with other information, giving the farmer freedom to carry out agronomic analysis, studies and other actions that depend on real and updated information on the climate.
Finally, the solutions offered by Solinfetec directly contribute to sustainability in agribusiness, with the advantage of being more durable and integrated into everyday life in the field. They are sustainable technologies that, in fact, improve the working conditions of producers over time and generate results in protecting the environment.
Proof of this is in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, in a work carried out in partnership with Control Union, where producers, just for the sake of efficiency, stopped emitting more than 240 thousand tons of Co2 in the atmosphere, only in 2019 - the equivalent of more than one year of issuance of the RIO-SP airlift that same year.
Did you like this content? Do you want to enjoy the benefits of sustainable technologies in your business? Contact Solinftec today and find out how we can help you!
This blog has been translated from Portuguese into English. Some quotes may have been changed for clarity.
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