Aerial view of a soy plantation in the state of Goias, Brazil, January 22, 2024 (AFP/Archives/Sergio Lima)
A “data harvest” to assess natural risks: thanks to artificial intelligence, a new generation of Latin American start-ups intends to transform agriculture.
No more good old almanacs to anticipate the vagaries of the weather. Digital platforms can process data in a few minutes that took experts months to analyze.
This is what Traive, a start-up created in 2018 by Brazilian Aline Oliveira Pezente, 39, from the state of Minas Gerais (south-east), offers.
Previously, she worked for food giant Louis-Dreyfus Commodities (LDC), where she identified a major problem for farmers in her country.
In Brazil, the world’s leading exporter of soya, beef, sugar and corn, producers need credit to buy, for example, seeds or fertilizers and meet this enormous external demand.
However, according to her, loans are difficult to obtain, because banks are often put off by the tedious task of assessing risks, both natural, such as drought or floods, and financial, such as a collapse in the prices of certain products. .
– Drones and satellites –
Aline Oliveira Pezente decided to study the problem in depth at the prestigious American university Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she specialized in artificial intelligence and data analysis.
“The banks used their own risk analysis model – a kind of huge Excel spreadsheet. But it’s very difficult for a human being, even one who is expert in mathematics and statistics, to identify all the nuances and variables from data,” she explains to AFP.
The Traive company’s clients include agri-food giants like Syngenta, fintechs and the second largest bank in Latin America, Banco do Brasil (AFP/Archives/Fabrice COFFRINI)
“It took three months to make a calculation that we can do today in five minutes, with much more accuracy,” she insists.
Her company Traive, co-founded with her husband Fabricio Pezente, has as clients agri-food giants like Syngenta, fintechs (companies using new technologies to optimize financial activities) and the second largest bank in Latin America, Banco do Brazil.
More than 70,000 farmers use its platform, which has facilitated access to nearly a billion dollars in credit.
Long hair dyed mauve, black tie on white blouse, Aline Oliveira Pezente presented her work this week in Rio de Janeiro during the Web Summit, a conference known as the “Davos of geeks”, of which AFP was this year’s media partner .
Aline Oliveira Pezente presented her work this week in Rio de Janeiro at the Web Summit, a conference known as the “Davos of geeks” (AFP/Archives/Pablo PORCIUNCULA)
During a round table entitled “Data harvest, the next agricultural revolution”, she had by her side the Puerto Rican entrepreneur Alejandro Mieses, also 39 years old.
His start-up, TerraFirma, has developed an artificial intelligence model that analyzes satellite data to help predict possible natural disasters.
“The basis is to understand how the movements of water and wind, exposure to the sun, can have an impact on agricultural land,” he explains.
Around the world, farmers are increasingly using AI to increase their yield, for example using autopilot tractors or drones to observe crops or livestock.
– “Regenerate the environment” –
The agricultural sector faces numerous criticisms in countries like Brazil for its environmental impact, particularly in the Amazon, where the preservation of the tropical forest is a vital issue in the fight against global warming.
Mariana Vasconcelos, CEO of Agrosmart, a technology-based agricultural startup, during Web Summit Rio 2024, April 16, 2024 in Brazil (AFP/Archives/MAURO PIMENTEL)
For the most optimistic, new technologies like AI represent hope as the world population could reach ten billion by 2050.
Mariana Vasconcelos, 32, is the head of Agrosmart, a start-up which has developed a platform using AI to help farmers assess climate risks, but also to produce in a more environmentally friendly way.
“The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) says we need to increase food production to feed a growing population. But we need to produce more, while using less land, by reducing deforestation and the carbon footprint,” she told AFP, on the sidelines of the Web Summit.
“We often oppose nature and agriculture, but technology can help regenerate the environment, by finding the right balance between crops, livestock and forests,” she says, believing in “a more sustainable model”.
© 2024 AFP
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