PHOTO: DANIEL AZEVEDO
CROP MANAGEMENT ▶▶▶
Counteracting environmental challenges with precision farming
A BY DANIEL AZEVEDO
ccording to IBGE (the Brazilian Insti- tute for Geography and Statistics), Brazil produced 3,9 million tonnes of potatoes in 2018. 20% of the na-
tional production concerns processing pota- toes (chips industry) and 80% concerns ware potatoes. Farmers achieve an average harvest of just about 30 tonnes per hectare. Not top notch, so some farmers are striving to increase their results.
Geo referencing and satellites Pedro Marão is an agronomist and manager at Campo Vitória (Victory Field) Group. This com- pany dedicates 600 hectares to potatoes and 1,000 hectares to cereals (maize, beans, wheat and sorghum) and oranges. They have been using geo referencing and satellite images for planting, fertilisation and harvest for some years now. “We also adopted soil sample analy- sis, variable rate application (VRA) for fertilisers and irrigation control, along with manage- ment software and digital scale. Currently, our productivity is around 40 tonnes per hectare for ware potatoes. We have two crop cycles per year”, Marão explains. Due to different growing conditions, productivity in England reaches up to 82 tonnes per hectare, according to Marcello Ramos, head of Hummingbird Technologies in
Brazilian potato growers still have large margins to increase their productivity by adopting digital farming tools and techniques. British company Hummingbird has come to their rescue and aims for increases up to 50% on its very first test in São Paulo.
Brazil. The British company has already ac- quired Brazilian clients, offering them their package of innovative solutions to face their productivity challenges. “The optimum tem- perature for potatoes is about 18 degrees, which is common in England. Here in Brazil, the first challenge is temperature. It provokes dis- eases. However, it is taken for granted that there is a lot to gain in productivity. Maybe we cannot get it up to 80 tonnes, but we can cer- tainly achieve Australian levels of 56 tonnes per hectare”, Ramos assures.
Tech for management He endorses rigorous agricultural manage- ment, supported by technology and profes- sionals. Brazilian potato plantations have a production cycle of 120 to 180 days. His proto- col, for example, is based on 12 to 16 drone mappings during this period in order to moni- tor plant development in detail. These images are continuously compared with a global data- base in England to quantify aspects like plant
formation, diseases, water and fertiliser re- quirements on a weekly basis. This high level of detail allows agronomists to identify incon- sistencies all over the plantation regarding chemicals, irrigation and fertilisation. The next step is to structure these data using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and predictive analysis. This results in solid rec- ommendations for the farmer and his team of specialists. “We can not only demonstrate what the problem is, but also where it is and how big it is. We are very certain that our solution will help producers. Within our climate’s limita- tions, there are plenty of opportunities to en- hance efficiency in productivity and costs”, argues Ramos.
Potential Increasing productivity is Marcelo Cazarotto’s goal as well. As president of the Potato Grow- ers Association of Vargem Grande do Sul (São Paulo state), he is one of the very first Hum- mingbird customers in Brazil and grows
Cazarotto grows potatoes for chips for PepsiCo on 600 hectares. He owns a modern packing house as well.
42 ▶ FUTURE FARMING | 27 August 2019
The irrigation system responds to the precise big data diagnosis.
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