STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 39 row is a tool with teeth or discs that break up the big clods of dirt that remain after subsoiling, leaving fluffier soil. A crusher then pulverizes the soil and plant matter, leaving the ground smooth and bare. Which technique, or combination of techniques, does the best, most cost-effective job of improving sweeping and picking efficiency? Tavares' team considered four options: a) control group with no soil management that pro- vides the best conditions for mechanical harvesting but is not a good soil management practice; b) subsoiler followed by harrow. The researchers found the harrow treatment led to the highest losses. They concluded that subsoiling plus harrowing was an economically undesirable manage- ment practice; c) subsoiler, harrow, and crusher. This treatment was not consistently effective. The extra step also increased operational costs, making it a less desirable option; d) subsoiler followed by crusher. Tavares and his team determined that the crusher treatment was the best option to reduce the losses of mechanical coffee harvesting. This method offers the lowest losses and best operational quality. Leaving fallen coffee berries on the ground is not a good option. For one thing, the berries provide a breeding ground for the coffee borer, a common pest. Just as important, the sale value of the fallen coffee makes it economically worthwhile to recover as much as possible. "This study is important because through this research coffee producers can improve the management of their coffee plantations," Tavares said. "They can reduce losses and increase their profit while taking good care of the soil." That's a coffee blend with just the right amount of earthiness and a great finish. Learn more about this research in Agronomy Journal. maps. Its strategy emphasizes working closely with farmers in their fields to educate them and build confidence in embedding technology in their operations. Strider Pro- tector provides "phytosanitary control", monitoring and responding quickly to pest threats. Base tracks operations from soil preparation to storage. Space identifies abnor- malities in planting areas, however small, using satellite imaging and data on the crop's history. Tracker monitors equipment and machinery: where it is, its movement history, breakdowns, etc. Strider's growth reflects its success in reaching new users. Close to 80% of its customers have been new to technology in the field. It has expanded inter- nationally and is used on round 120 Texas farms. Strider was acquired in mid-2018 by the large agribusiness multinational, Syngenta. • Adama is an Israeli crop protection product maker acquired by a China company. It now has revenues of over $3 billion. It has targeted Brazil as a major market for many reasons: the size and variety of its crops, its productivity and increasing sophisti- cation, and the challenges and hence opportunities of its logistical problems: physical distribution and digital coverage across such vast areas, terrain and crops. Adama recognizes that sellers of just agrochemical products face a limited chance of survival. These must be complemented with information that helps understand how the crop grows, the climate and weather patterns and sustainable development. The combination of satellites and drones for information collection, the internet and GPS for communicating it and tablets, sensors, smart phones and other wireless devices add that dimension to precision agriculture, in the widest sense of the term. Adama Alvo provides a database used by 75,000 customers. This includes an image bank of crop pest diseases to enable diagnosis anywhere in the field. A network of 299 ground stations link growers to real-time localized weather forecasts and issue alerts. • Falker is a Brazilian firm with a strong track record in using GPS satellite services and sensors for crop sampling, soil conductivity and compaction meters, variable rate fertilization, pest control, and irrigation control. These companies make different uses of the same basic technology building blocks of PA: image capture, both visual and multispectral; satellite and drone eyes in the sky; drone, ground station and tractor internet access, software and physical carrying capacity The Brazil coffee market is wide open for innovation in agriculture. There are of course many blockages. Those include literacy – half of rural landowners have only an elementary school education – price and market volatility and uncertainty, cash pres- sures, the lack of skill in interpreting the massive volumes of data that PA generates, and regional differences in farm size, income, yield etc. One of the strengths of the na- tion is its strong PA research and training in universities, improved government policy to support innovation, and well-established research and information institutions. PA points towards an internet of food and drink that will have the same impact on world business as the internet of e-commerce.

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