Adoption and use of precision agriculture in Brazil: perception of growers and service dealership

Abstract

Precision agriculture (PA) is growing considerably in Brazil. However, there is a lack of information regarding to PA adoption and use in the country. This study sought to: (i) investigate the perception of growers and service dealership about PA technologies; (ii) identify constraints to PA adoption; (iii) obtain information that might be useful to motivate producers and agronomists to use PA technologies in the crop production systems. A web-based survey approach method was used to collect data from farmers and services dealership involved with PA in several crop production regions of Brazil. We found that the growth of PA was linked to the agronomic and economic gains observed in the field; however, in some situations, the producers still can not measure the real PA impact in producer system. Economic aspects coupled with the difficulty to use of software and equipment proportioned by the lack of technical training of field teams, may be the main factors limiting the PA expansion in many producing regions of Brazil. Precision agriculture work carried out by dealership in Brazil is quite recent. The most services offered is gridding soil sampling, field mapping for lime and fertilizer application at variable rate. Many producers already have PA equipment loaded on their machines, but little explored, also restricting to fertilizers and lime application. Looking at the currently existing technologies and services offered by dealership, the PA use in Brazil could be better exploited, and therefore, a more rational use of non-renewable resources.