Weeds is certainly a problem, but I believe that for tropical agriculture, the main problem today are pests. In soybeans for example, stink bugs is the major threat. The insecticides are becoming inneficient and the control of insects is very harmful for the environment.
Hello Ariel, thank you for your reply. In Brazil, biologicals, on the several fronts like parasitoids, bio-inputs, etc are a trend, however the results have being inconsistent and the usage is a little difficult. I believe that the more promising solutions will come from the digital front helping on automating mapping and still using agrichemicals, but in much lower amounts. I believe that considering the size of Brazilian farms and the extension of soybean fields and that we are in a tropical country where the insects have many generations per year, In special 3 initiatives I believe would be interesting for mineral: a) YOLO-based detection b) electrochemical-sensors c) automated traps: both are focused on mapping, what in my opinion is the way that insect control could be optimized still using traditional methods, up to biologicals are really effective. Previous researches have shown strong reduction on pesticides, when the mapping is assertive. I believe that there are real opportunities in those fronts. If you can, we could schedule a chat to talk about that!! Below a news link showing more or less what I'm referring (please use the browser translator)
Weeds is certainly a problem, but I believe that for tropical agriculture, the main problem today are pests. In soybeans for example, stink bugs is the major threat. The insecticides are becoming inneficient and the control of insects is very harmful for the environment.
This is a great point, Elizeu! Does it seem like there are similarly many new technologies in Brazil to tackle the insect problem beyond insecticides?
Hello Ariel, thank you for your reply. In Brazil, biologicals, on the several fronts like parasitoids, bio-inputs, etc are a trend, however the results have being inconsistent and the usage is a little difficult. I believe that the more promising solutions will come from the digital front helping on automating mapping and still using agrichemicals, but in much lower amounts. I believe that considering the size of Brazilian farms and the extension of soybean fields and that we are in a tropical country where the insects have many generations per year, In special 3 initiatives I believe would be interesting for mineral: a) YOLO-based detection b) electrochemical-sensors c) automated traps: both are focused on mapping, what in my opinion is the way that insect control could be optimized still using traditional methods, up to biologicals are really effective. Previous researches have shown strong reduction on pesticides, when the mapping is assertive. I believe that there are real opportunities in those fronts. If you can, we could schedule a chat to talk about that!! Below a news link showing more or less what I'm referring (please use the browser translator)
https://www.embrapa.br/en/busca-de-noticias/-/noticia/55534108/tecnologias-digitais-aumentam-a-eficiencia-do-manejo-integrado-de-pragas#:~:text=Previs%C3%A3o%20%C3%A9%20que%20novos%20sensores,do%20manejo%20integrado%20de%20pragas.
You do not promote agriculture. You promote agrabusiness. Sad