Commodities Shuttle: New technologies arrive in the field, but there is still a way to go to adoption

A lot of new stuff is coming when it comes to field-oriented technologies. The important thing is to show these options and give the producer possibilities of choice.

Not everything, however, will be in the future, and many things could turn to foam and not bring practical results to the field.

The assessment is by Auke Dijkstra, strategy and innovation manager at Frísia, an agro-industrial cooperative in the state of Campos Gerais.

For him, however, it is necessary to help the farmer to identify these innovations and help him to choose the technologies that really increase productivity and generate more quality in food.

Hence the importance, for him, of a meeting place for producers and promoters, such as Digital Agro, an annual fair that is held for the fifth time. This year, the event is being held in Curitiba, and ends this Thursday (14).

The fair is organized by Frisia, and Dijkstra highlights the importance of the cooperative in this leadership, since a good part of these innovations needs to be passed on to the producers.

Not all producers are open to changes, mainly because not everything generates immediate results, says the manager from Frísia. However, there is no age for the acceptance of technologies, although young people always have more affinities with them because they already live with the digital on a daily basis.

Looking at the technologies presented at fairs in previous years, which were implemented in the field, Dijkstra highlights the management platform, now adopted by most producers.

The adoption of biotechnology is also advancing in the region, with companies placing products for crops and genetic improvement on the market.

According to him, spraying with drones, which seemed a distant reality a few years ago, is already present in agricultural activities. The manager also highlights an initiation of bio-input factories in the region.

In the dairy sector, there have been advances in handling technology, quality management, disease control, and animal temperature measurement using collars and paw sensors. These help identify the period of heat in cows. All of this helps in identifying and anticipating problems, he says.

The role of the cooperative is to identify all the best available to the producer and make him aware of the importance of these innovations. The adoption of new technologies will be a defense of the producer’s own business model, says Dijkstra.

In this 5th edition, the fair features an open innovation program. Startups are encouraged to seek solutions for the Alegra refrigerator, which belongs to the Frísia, Castrolanda and Capal cooperatives. Others are looking for new investment options for producers, even outside the properties.

The new technologies allow the agricultural sector to prepare itself more and more for the production of a food with more quality and that shows the ways of production. After all, this is a consumer demand, says Dijkstra.

For Otavio Celidonio, executive director of AgriHub, created in 2016 to seek innovations and technologies for the field, it is a great challenge to promote these changes among producers. In 2020, AgriHub became an institute.

The producer still has a long way to go, but the technology is already starting to reach the field, especially in large companies, which are better structured.

It is necessary to make the producer see the importance of changes in culture and management models. Many are not yet ready to capture the value brought by these innovations.

The assimilation of new technologies, however, should be accelerated more quickly from now on. They are a succession tool.

Faced with the difficulties of assimilation, parents have sought more for their children to participate in business, says Celidonio.

mirror gold Brazil needs to stop trading gold for a mirror. This is the message from Alexandre Nepomuceno, general manager of Embrapa Soja, about the need to adopt new technologies to add value to Brazilian products.

investments The distance between science and practice is shortening, and this is the time for investments, says the head of Embrapa Soja. It is time for the sector to look more at genetics, the basis of Brazilian agriculture.

more companies Assertive legislation on gene editing and RNAi in different countries anticipates and shortens the period of arrival of these technologies to a greater number of companies and more cultures in the field.

Agro is Tech However, there is no technology without incentives, said Nepomuceno at Digital Agro, held by Frísia, in Curitiba. The agro is Tech, the agro is Pop, but you can’t be naive, he says.