PHOTO: SPRAY X PHOTO: FELIPE MATHIES
INNOVATION ▶▶▶
Four companies helping Brazilian Alpha Farms innovate
BY DANIEL AZEVEDO A
lpha Farms (Fazendas Alfa in Portu- guese) was created in 2016 by AgriHub Cuiabá, an initiative of Fa- mato (Mato Grosso Agriculture
Federation), for solving real farmer´s problems by developers of digital solutions. “We saw lots of beautiful products that did not talk with real problems. Therefore, AgriHub ought to do that connection to achieve concrete goals. We had been introduced by Famato and the farm- ers have become more open for the innova- tion”, says Daniel Latorraca, founder of Agri- Hub Cuiabá. The farmers should be visionary, open to new tech, eager to take some risks and research for participating. In fact, 48% of them already was using some kind of agricul- tural precision techniques, 14% gps, 10% autosteer, 10% managing system and 10% seed treatment. Then, they defined seven main problems: 1. Low sharing of information 2. Imprecision on grains classification 3. Scarcity of data collecting 4. Unsafety inside farms 5. Inaccuracy on climate forecast 6. Lack of connectivity and 7. Bad management about plagues, weeds and plants diseases
“We knew that digital farming could help. So, we started to join ‘solution providers’, some of them with already available solutions for specific problems. The topics without ready solutions were presented for interested entre- preneurs or, even, became theme for hacka- thons”, explains Fábio Silva, AgriHub Cuiabá consultant for partnerships. Since the first moment, more than 20 solution providers vis- ited the farms for implementing their solu- tions or testing new alternatives. They employ different technologies as software for manag- ing, big data, machine learning, mechanisa- tion, IoT, but, above all, creativity. Check out four of them:
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AgriHub Cuiabá joins producers and developers in finding real alternatives for digital farming on 180,000 hectares area.
+ Gestão is a managing model with tailored design for each farm/property. It organises every step of the workflow inside the proper- ties, delivering a great advance on efficiency. The solution takes care and produces data from each department in a farm by online connection and a robust software. “We usually start with a diagnosis of each farm to design our specific proposal. The focus is tools and knowledge and our clients are, mostly, grains, livestock and fruits producers. Brazilian farm- ers are turning their level and we are happy for been a reference since 2010”, says Marcelo Lagemann, director of Connectere. Farmbox is a managing tool focused on
agronomic issues such as plagues, diseases and weeds. The solution uses software and data to improve results of seeding, agricultural inputs, spraying and water levels on every part of the plantation. Farmbox already covers around 850,000 hectares in Brazil. “Our focus is agronomic management with the highest lev- el of accuracy in each field of the property. Plague control uses to have the greatest im- pact on costs and the timing is crucial for bet- ter results. We provide conditions for produc- ers extracting all what their land can offer in the most sustainable way”, adds Ivana Manke, director of Check Plant. Spray X is an innovative corporation that pre- sented three solutions for Alpha Farms. Their latest product is a device called Sprayflow. This basically is a portable gauge for quick flow measuring of spray nozzles’ efficiency by
Sprayflow is a portable gauge for quick flow measuring of spray nozzles’ efficiency, avoiding wastage of agrichemicals and protecting the environment and workers.
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 22 February 2019
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