Keywords: IT, Agribusiness, Strider, Brazil
The agriculture business in Brazil is what drives the economy. It employs millions of people, produces food for many different countries, and generates income to families all over the country. More than 230 million tons of grains are produced per year, even in a year of a political and economic crisis that affects every single sector.
With such a recipe for success, it’s no wonder that the sector has stimulated the development and lay the foundation for countless new technologies on the field in the last decade, especially when it comes to IT.
However, contrary to the reality found on the fields of the United States – where the development of technologies and the adoption by producers happen extremely fast -, Brazil still must face important bottlenecks in order for the operational management of the crops to become more efficient, making Brazilian producers more able to compete in the market.
To illustrate, a recent research “Information Technology in the Agribusiness” carried out by the Brazilian Service Support to Micro and Small Companies (Sebrae) shows that 96% of producers in Brazil use smartphones to access the internet, but they are unable to use this or other devices to increment production. The main problem is the lack of communication infrastructure on the field.
Innovation and efficiency
Among them, we find Strider, a Brazilian company in the sector that develops and commercializes products to many different countries, including the USA. The company, that started operations four years ago as a startup, was responsible for the first software for pest monitoring and control, using IT technology. And today, Strider provides mentoring and consulting services to companies that are starting out.
Strider today monitors over 2.5 million hectares in more than 2000 rural properties in Brazil, the United States, Mexico, Bolivia, Mozambique and Australia. “We are currently increasing the number of clients abroad, which shows that the technology we develop meets the needs of the producers who wants to modernize their production and make it more productive”, says Luiz Tângari, Strider’s CEO.
Named by Forbes as one of the 25 most innovative AgTechs in the world in 2017, Strider relies on an R&D team focused on researching and developing new technologies for latent demands in the agribusiness.
An example of this is the Horizon network, a proprietary technology from Strider installed in the estates, with retransmitting antennas with up to 5-kilometer reach. “Instant communication between the machinery in the field and the headquarters allows people in the office to have access to the location of the machines at any given moment, without interfering in the work of operators after they have gone out into the field”, he explains.
Besides transmitting to the machines, the Horizon network also allows for communication with climate stations, digital traps, and other sensors in the field.
Technological Revolution
According to Luiz Tângari, Brazil has an enormous potential to lead the technological revolution on the field. “We have the largest crops in the world, which present us with great management challenges, and that need to produce with efficiency. This makes the battle for innovation take place here”, he says.
“As the AgTech companies become increasingly capable of breaking the adoption barrier, we will see more and more producers starting to use technologies in their daily work. The most optimistic ones say this may be a new green revolution”.
