Rio de Janeiro (AFP)
A video broadcast on the internet to sell cottage cheese, a drone to monitor weeds ... In Brazil, the limitation of physical contact to stop the Covid-19 epidemic is pushing more rural producers towards digital tools.
At the head of an agricultural empire of 40,000 hectares in the west of the State of Bahia, Júlio César Busato spent hours on the road to join his farms or meet his colleagues from the Bahian Association of Cotton Producers.
Pandemic requires, he converted to videoconferences.
"Most of the meetings will continue to be done through this system, especially as contact with our suppliers has become easier," he told AFP.
Mr. Busato also looked at tools specially developed for agriculture.
"To control the presence of weeds, I used satellite images, which are expensive and often approximate. I am now interested in applications that allow them to be detected using a drone, in order to apply herbicides with precision", details- he does.
"Digital tools existed and were already arousing interest, but the pandemic has played a role of accelerator", observes Silvia Massruhá, director of the IT department of the Brazilian agricultural research organization (Embrapa), which offers a system of remote management of dairy herds.
For Marcelo Perreira de Carvalho, co-founder of the agricultural innovation platform AgTech Garage, "this movement transcends the pandemic but the context means that the agricultural sector has shown itself to be more open to innovation".
- The little ones too -
Small farmers are also starting to do it.
Launched five years ago, the start-up Elysios Agricultura Inteligente has developed a digital logbook, in which the producer indicates each stage of his work and the evolution of his crops, and which can be consulted by his cooperative, the organizations credits and the technical assistant.
"Adherence to technologies to optimize production is now seen as a necessity. We have observed a growing interest in our tools, especially on the issue of assistance, because the agronomist has access to detailed farmer data and can remote advisor ", says Mario Apollo Brito, commercial director of Elysios, whose 300 customers mainly produce vegetables and fruits.
Cooperatives also view these tools in a positive light when it comes to monitoring their production.
Very dependent on public purchasing programs, sometimes suspended during quarantine, "traceability allows them to sell more to the private sector, which is increasingly demanding on this point", underlines Mr. Brito, who considers that this digitization of the Brazilian agriculture is not likely to decline.
This is also the opinion of Robério Silva de Paiva, a small farmer from Sobradinho, near Brasilia: "We sent photos with our smartphone to our technical assistant, who quickly guided us. This forced adaptation made our work easier. "
As for social networks, they have been fundamental in maintaining and even improving sales.
In the state of Minas Gerais, Moacyr Carvalho Ferreira was just starting to market his artisanal dairy products in shops or via door-to-door, before the lockdown interrupted his activity.
One day, his wife filmed him preparing cottage cheese in his kitchen and posted the video on the internet.
The success was instantaneous: "I sold in fifteen minutes what I was selling in a week. I now have a customer base and my production is reserved in advance", rejoices Mr. Carvalho Ferreira, who, once the pandemic has passed, intends to strengthen its digital communication and improve its delivery logistics.
The challenge of the digital divide in rural areas remains to be taken up.
According to the last agricultural census, carried out in 2017, only 30% of Brazilian farms have internet access. The cost of technologies also hinders the adhesion of farms practicing family farming (80% of Brazilian farms), adds Ms. Massruhá, for whom "training and adoption of tools through rural associations and cooperatives can make this transition ".
© 2020 AFP