Agritech For Smart Decision Making In South America
On December 07, EOS Data Analytics (EOSDA), a global provider of AI-powered satellite imagery analytics, together with Agronómico, a provider of high-tech services in soil management and agricultural research, hosted a webinar on farming challenges and precision farming opportunities in South America.
During the webinar, presenters shared multiple South American use cases on how the technologies helped in agricultural decision-making. Please follow the links to watch the full webinar and review the presentation.
Experts covered decision support tools for smart farming and the future of satellite analytics platforms, and discussed how the crop advisors might help growers increase yields and adapt to climate change. Attendees from 15+ countries, including Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Chile, Guatemala, and Venezuela, participated in the event.
Presenters were:
- Dmitry Svyrydenko, Agri Solution Consultant in the South American region at EOS Data Analytics
- André Zabini, Technical Director at Agronómico
- Mauricio Aguirre Morales, API Solution Consultant at EOS Data Analytics
- Natasha Valadares dos Santos, Data Processing Manager at Agronómico
We are happy to have successfully conducted our first co-hosted webinar with Agronómico. Precision agriculture is rapidly developing worldwide and that was born from agricultural management based on measurable data. South America is definitely not an exception! We are certainly looking forward to replicating the same successful cases of partnership globally.
Technology is one of the primary agents of change today. In 2015, the investment in agricultural technology – also known as agritech – reached $4.6 billion. Since the world population is growing, by 2050, food production will have to increase by 60% to meet the nutritional demands of more than 9 billion people.
The South American region is acknowledged for its agricultural industry:
Grains and grasses are among the main crops in South America. The implementation of technologies to ensure production underlies the region’s agricultural strength. Since South America is a large manufacturer, the use of agritech results in boosting the agricultural market.
The Latin American precision agriculture market is worth $1.21 billion in 2021 and is estimated to grow at a rate of 15.4% to reach $2.13 billion in 2026. The global smart agriculture market is currently valued at $12.9 billion and is projected to hit $20.8 billion by 2026.
We are happy to be one of the agritech pioneers for the South American region. Let me emphasize that integrating field activities with technology provides competitiveness by reducing costs and optimizing processes. The EOS Data Analytics programmable interface satisfies the need for both the quality and quantity of information that our users require.
Agriculture in South America is very dynamic and diversified, being a key economic activity of the continent’s countries. Among the most important grains, soybeans are the main crop, followed by corn, wheat, and rice. However, South American agriculture faces several challenges, including soil condition (acidity and lack of some mineral nutrients), climate (high temperatures and periods of water scarcity), infrastructure limitations (poor access roads and lack of broad Internet coverage in rural areas), and cultural limitations (low adoption of technology). Therefore, using technology and technical advisory is essential to partly mitigate these constraints, employing knowledge of soil chemistry, climatic data, and EOSDA Crop Monitoring to achieve better yields with technical and economic efficiency.
André Zabini, Technical Director at Agronómico, identified the following principal challenges of agricultural advisers in the region:
- Financial: expensive equipment and poorly accessible technology to small and mid-size farmers.
- Infrastructure and Support: limited Internet access and deficit of trained personnel.
- Cultural: lack of digital mindset and understanding of satellite-based technology’s value.
Dmitry Svyrydenko, Agri Solution Consultant in the South American region at EOS Data Analytics, added to the list above the scarcity of data for proper decision making and difficulties with the remote access to customers’ fields.
Agritech software products can help both smallholding and large-scale South American farmers overcome these challenges by providing 24/7 access to historical weather data, vegetation indices, field productivity and vegetation maps, and automated notifications on crop state change to mitigate the risk of performance loss. Also, group accounts provide transparency in communication between crop advisors and farmers. Thus, we can say that EOSDA Crop Monitoring serves to connect end-users and assist farmers in their daily work.
Since precision agriculture is an activity based on measurable data, its application in the agricultural sector aims to optimize and improve processes such as irrigation, spraying, fertilization, sowing, harvesting, and many more.
Valuable information such as temperature stress, identification of adverse weather conditions, and constant EOSDA Crop Monitoring translates into lower losses and higher efficiency. Eventually, this reduces production costs and improves the return on investment up to $43 for 87% of the farmers.
Crop advisor’s objective is productivity with profitability. The accurate field diagnosis followed by appropriate recommendations results in the optimized use of resources and, ultimately, profit increase. Success in agricultural efforts requires a high level of attention. Thus, satellite imagery analytics platforms like EOSDA Crop Monitoring are critical to improving the agricultural consultant’s work.
EOS Data Analytics and Agronómico aim to boost South American agricultural potential and accelerate agro-industry digitization.
Please follow the links to watch the full webinar and review the presentation.
About Agronómico
Agronómico‘s objective is to provide technical services and information to help producers and/or companies in the decision-making process in agriculture, with special attention to the technical management of soil and crops. For this purpose, Agronómico has laboratories, equipment, and highly qualified personnel to meet the needs of diagnosis and soil management to contribute to efficient agriculture.