22 Dec Disruptive technology in agriculture
Disruptive digital technology and access to informational data is gaining more relevance in recent years. Also, since the beginning of the pandemic, this new digital trend has been present with greater force in all the productive sectors of the country.
On the other hand, agriculture is one of the sectors that provides the greatest source of employment in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, the maximum potential of the sector has not been obtained yet, in addition to its low productivity. Work is being done to obtain improvements such as the empowerment of farmers, presenting greater opportunities for growth and positioning. What is expected in the coming years is that the agricultural sector will obtain essential growth, not only for farmers , but also that the economy in the regions can be improved. Previously, this sector has been in constant changes, such as more specialized machinery, fertilizers, seeds, etc. But, currently these changes are in the line of technology and innovation in each of the processes.
Implementing innovation and digitization in agriculture will help improve the current food system, but also improve the quality of life of rural communities and the preservation of the environment, since it will be able to optimize natural resources, reduce waste and implement sustainable practices. This requires training and capital to transform viable business ideas. From this, trends or solutions such as:
Digital Consulting: Service which consists of providing agricultural practices, prices and meteorological information to small farmers. In addition, it trains in the financial field and the use of digital tools.
Digital financial services: This type of service helps the sector to reduce the financial inclusion gap, it supports both the farmer and the financing providers as it allows them to reduce risks and grant the requested loans.
Digital supply: They are digital solutions that allow digitizing and obtaining transparent transactions, market access and improving the efficiency of operating profitability.
Agricultural electronic commerce: They are digital platforms where you can buy and sell agricultural products. Likewise, this type of platform is a window for farmers to make sales with international buyers.
Smart farming: They are agricultural assets which generate and transmit data, which will allow greater knowledge to be obtained on optimizing production processes and saving resources for the sector.
Besides, the sector is going through other situations in order to reach the desired technological level. One of them is the coverage of internet services in which there are still gaps between rural and urban areas. Where Peru, Bolivia and El Salvador are the countries where there is a high percentage of coverage gap, which the main thing is to solve connectivity problems. On the other hand, the topic of penetration of Smartphones in Latin America is one of the highest, with Brazil being the one with the highest percentage. Likewise, Mexico has 66% which is a positive figure for the country. The changes in demand is also one of the factors in which it favored the growth in the use of digital agriculture, because consumers have higher income levels and opt for healthier, safer and organic products.
For this, it is expected that the gaps that currently exist in the sector will be taken into account, and from this generate opportunities and favorable growth with the implementation of disruptive and innovative technology. Likewise, the governments of each Latin American country choose to generate greater benefits and take measures to create more favorable environments for technology in agriculture.
References
Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID). (Febrero, 2021). Panorama del ecosistema agrotecnológico para los pequeños agricultores de América Latina y el Caribe. Recuperado de https://publications.iadb.org/publications/spanish/document/Panorama-del-ecosistema-agrotecnologico-para-los-pequenos-agricultores-de-America-Latina-y-el-Caribe.pdf
Fermoso, A. (13 de diciembre del 2021). Transformación digital y la inclusión financiera en el campo. El Economista. Recuperado de https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/opinion/Transformacion-digital-y-la-inclusion-financiera-en-el-campo-20211213-0128.html