Construção do mercado de veículos aéreos não tripulados no agronegócio no Brasil: uma análise sob a ótica da construção de mercados

Abstract

With the exponential increase in the global population in the coming decades, it is estimated that, in order to avoid food crises, food production must be increased by about 70%. To meet the demand, taking into account the reduction of labor on the farms and the proportional reduction of land for planting, the use of technologies aimed at the sustainable optimization of the cultivation capacity is pointed out, which is known as smart farming. In these circumstances, the application of technological innovations from other areas in agriculture arise, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which are presented as one of the tools capable of contributing to attenuate the impacts between the supply and demand of food. The use of UAVs is still in the process of consolidation, after all its directed use on the field is recent, however, the understanding of this market can give directions for new technological innovations, given its transformative character.Based on the theoretical lens of Constructivist Market Studies (CMS), we sought to analyze, in a historical and longitudinal perspective, how the process of construction of the agricultural UAVs market took place in Brazil, highlighting practices, actors and arrangements (agencies) of this market, since the understanding of the dynamics of this market can enable improvements to be made in the field as a whole. To carry out the research, data were collected through semi-structured interviews were used, which were separated into categories based on content analysis. In the first moment, the socio-technical devices and the actors responsible for the transformations in this market at the national level were identified and described.Then, the main practices adopted by the actants were identified and described, given the growth of transactions and investments in it. Sequentially, it was identified and described how the sociotechnical elements were configured in different market arrangements for the construction of this market. The results favorably indicate that, increasingly, smart agriculture tends to be a reality, with technology being used as an element to promote productivity in the field. The studies of the UAVs market and its dynamics allow, therefore, the inference of next steps and market directions.