Article
An Update on Precision Agriculture in Brazil
By Brazil's Country Representatives Jose P. Molin (U. of São Paulo) & Ricardo Y. Inamasu (Embrapa)
Precision Agriculture (PA) practices undeniably began with soil management activities, and Brazil was no exception. In the late 1990s, attempts were made to replicate the business model, already well-established in the US, by selling fertilizers applied at variable rates, including sampling, data processing, and variable-rate distribution of inputs. The main players were the machinery industries, with GPS as the standout star. But what truly marked the beginning of the adoption of PA in the country is associated with the entrepreneurship of young professionals who launched a business model adapted to the Brazilian reality, with dedicated consulting services, starting in 2001/02. Exact figures are not available, but market surveys indicate that approximately one-third of Brazilian crops already use variable rates of fertilizers and lime.
Precision Agriculture (PA) practices undeniably began with soil management activities, and Brazil was no exception. In the late 1990s, attempts were made to replicate the business model, already well-established in the US, by selling fertilizers applied at variable rates, including sampling, data processing, and variable-rate distribution of inputs. The main players were the machinery industries, with GPS as the standout star. But what truly marked the beginning of the adoption of PA in the country is associated with the entrepreneurship of young professionals who launched a business model adapted to the Brazilian reality, with dedicated consulting services, starting in 2001/02. Exact figures are not available, but market surveys indicate that approximately one-third of Brazilian crops already use variable rates of fertilizers and lime.
On the other hand, universities and research organizations, which had been active since the 1990s, together with the service sector and ag machinery industries, gave rise to events that culminated in the Brazilian Congress of Precision Agriculture (ConBAP), launched in 2004. Naturally, this community gradually developed and culminated in the emergence of the Association of Service Providers in PA (ABPSAP), created in 2015, and finally, a larger entity, the Brazilian Association of Precision and Digital Agriculture (AsBraAP), in 2016. Among AsBraAP's major tasks is the organization of ConBAP. It is worth noting that these developments were accompanied by the federal government, and the country has a 2022 law that established the National Policy for the Promotion of Precision Agriculture.
Research has played and continues to play an important role in this process, and in recent years, it has seen significant numerical participation and visible territorial expansion in the country. A review article published in 2022 - Precision Agriculture in Brazil: The Trajectory of 25 Years of Scientific Research (doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12111882) takes this approach.
Although we have cultural differences and organizational approaches with distinct formats among nations/groups, it is undeniable that there are well-structured communities around challenging topics such as Precision and Digital Agriculture, which need to be strengthened for agriculture to evolve to even higher levels of efficiency. And this is how we arrive at the 17th ICPA, for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere, together with the 11th ConBAP, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, from July 13th to 17th, 2026. Welcome everyone!