Good discussions on work in Latin America

Latin America

Good Discussions on Work in Latin America

By José Alexandre Loyola, AgGateway Latin America Regional Director

It has been a busy summer for AgGateway in Latin America. Here are a few updates:

  • AgGateway participated in the online seminar on Precision and Digital Agriculture promoted by AsBraAP (Brazilian Association of Precision Agriculture) in early September. Regional Director José Alexandre Loyola gave a presentation and participated in a panel with other professionals on the difficulties and challenges of implementing digital agriculture in Brazil.
  • On September 8, AgGateway members from the Latin America region met to review two studies with rural producers on the main difficulties in the implementation of digital agriculture. The studies are by AgriHub in Cuiabá / MT and EMBRAPA Informática in partnership with SEBRAE.
  • The September meeting also featured a presentation by Ronaldo Oliveira (EMBRAPA SOLOS) on the new scope of the Soil Analysis Laboratory Data project to be implemented in the region. Among other goals, this project seeks to provide standards for soil-testing database storage and information system interoperability; and promote a national soil testing data integration from heterogeneous and disperse soil lab datasets to soil sensing devices and software prescription systems.
  • At the region’s July meeting, members heard a presentation of the main difficulties of the technologies that are currently being used by two large grain producers in the Brazilian cerrado. The group discussed general challenges regarding digital agriculture. The region already has some data platform initiatives / intentions such as BDCA (ABIMAQ - Jacto, Stara, Marchesan, Jumil, Baldan, etc.), DataConnect (John Deere, CNH, Claas), Agrirouter (Kuhn, CNH, AGCO, Topcon, etc.) and Nevonex (Bosch). However, the group voiced the need to move forward with the interoperability between these platforms, with a consensus among all of them.
  • In July, AgGateway created a WhatsApp AgGateway Latin America group with all communication in Spanish, to gather and communicate with AgGateway members from Latin American countries where the language official is Spanish (e.g., Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, etc.).