NOMINEE SLC AGRICOLA ▶▶▶
Two decades of precision farming
SLC Agricola was nominated as one of the 10 most innovative arable farmers worldwide. The company farms 460,000 hectares and its main crop is soybean.
S BY DANIEL AZEVEDO
LC’s Pamplona Farm of 17,000 hec- tares is located in Luziânia, 80 km from Brazil’s capital Brasília. The farm is one of 16 SLC properties across six
states. In total, they cover over 460,000 hec- tares and produce soybean (240,000 ha), maize (80,000 ha) and cotton (120,000 ha). The company has 2,600 employees and an annual revenue of R$ 2,5 billion (€ 600 million).
Early adopters “The vocation for innovation is present since our foundation in 1945 because the company focused on machinery and agricultural imple- ments. We adopted precision farming technol- ogy in the 1990’s because technology is pivotal for competitiveness and better results. Since then, we are committed to be early adopters,” explains Gustavo Lunardi, SLC’s operation di- rector. All their processes bring some kind of innovation. The sensors in the gates of the Pamplona Farm for instance, identify, follow
Gustavo Lunardi, SLC’s operations director, says innovation involves tech and people.
and measure performance of each one of the 60 trucks that pass every day to deliver inputs or load SLC’s production on a very updated digital scale. And there are numerous innova- tive devices regarding storage and processing of crops. But it’s mainly planting solutions that impact the results. There are various types of software for monitoring, georeferencing, big data, mapping, artificial intelligence, and ma- chine learning for agronomic recommenda- tions. The company uses drones, satellites, airplanes, sensors, tablets, et cetera.
Top 10 nominee SLC Agricola
Name: SLC Agricola Country: Brazil Number of locations: 16 Number of hectares: 460,000 Main crops: soybean, maize and cotton Precision farmer since: late 1990’s
Selecting the right tools This year, Pamplona yielded 65 sacks of soy- bean, 320 arrobas (bushels) of cotton and 120 sacks of maize per hectare. “When we get 100% of our areas on line, it will be possible to increase our efficiency even more. Full poten- tial of precision tools depends on connectivity. But employees will always be needed for sev- eral tasks,” says Gustavo. He thinks just having technological alternatives is not enough, se- lecting the right ones is crucial. SLC has a permanent department in order to identify new solutions, to select which ones are relevant, and to enable its workers to apply these innovations. The group started the Agro Exponencial program in 2018. It’s a challenge of nine topics about agriculture, management and connectivity for start-ups and other com- panies. The best solution providers will receive support to develop their projects. Despite this robust structure of technology and culture of innovation, as any other farm, agriculture still is a risky activity in terms of climate, trade or even political issues. SLC has better chances to have better results, but there’s also some luck involved. In early May, for example, they were praying the rain on their cotton fields would stop…
A more elaborate story on SLC Agricola you can find on our website,
www.futurefarming.com
BRAZIL 12 ▶ FUTURE FARMING | 24 May 2019
PHOTO: DANIEL AZEVEDO
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