A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT Sloan Review Brasil in partnership with Agroven outlined a scenario on how management, ESG and technologies will take livestock farming into the future.
The participants are major players and producers in Brazilian agriculture. Among them are representatives of the Brazilian Zebu Breeders Association (ABCZ), JBS Fund for the Amazon, experts, professors and cattle ranchers.
UN projects population of 10 billion in 2050 with greater demand for food of animal origin
An estimate by the United Nations (UN) projects a world with 10 billion people in 2050. According to the “World Resources Report: Creating a sustainable food future”, the global demand for food will increase by more than 50%, and specifically the search for foods of animal origin, almost 70%.
And it is no surprise that Brazil must supply a large part of the world's demand. In fact, the country currently occupies the position of the largest global producers of agricultural commodities.
With a herd of 234.4 million animals (data from the Municipal Livestock Survey carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics – IBGE/ 2022), the national livestock industry still needs to invest more in new technologies to boost production with a focus on sustainability.
Accessibility and management with new technologies
Currently, the country has 1.37 million active livestock farmers. More than 90% of them are micro, small and medium-sized producers. The big players are at the forefront of management, but many still perform many activities manually. The lack of access and little familiarity with technology end up impacting the sector.
Blockchain to manage, track and profit more
Think, for example, of software that organizes livestock business management as a technological innovation. Software is one of the fronts of Thiago Parente's agtech, which has the ERP iRancho and BeefStats, a fattening simulator for livestock farmers. In fact, IRancho is one of the few to use blockchain for bovine traceability.
Parente, in fact, illustrates well the importance of traceability in blockchain with a real story.
“A cattle rancher received a call on a Friday from a meatpacking plant buyer about a shipment that was scheduled for Sunday. Since there was no shipment scheduled for that Sunday, the rancher was surprised and went to the farm, where he discovered his manager diverting two truckloads of cattle. When the calves were born, he did not enter them into the Excel spreadsheet (which was the management tool used) immediately; he only did so later, when diverting the fattened cattle, to ensure that the accounts matched. With blockchain traceability, this is not possible.”
Today, tools like this guarantee accurate information for decision-making.
This is reflected in animal welfare, less stress for employees, less fatigue, among other benefits, creating a virtuous cycle, explains Parente.
For example, when the solution does not use exponential technologies, the business is considered unattractive, adds Silvio Passos, founder and chairman of the board of AgroVen.
AI to mitigate climate impacts and precision
The study also addresses the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the ox weighing process. This is the relevance of technology to improve efficiency and precision in agriculture. Thus, AI is used to optimize animal traceability, allowing real-time monitoring and contributing to more sustainable practices.
This process connects directly to the concept of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), as technology helps to promote more efficient environmental management, reducing waste and improving animal management.
Furthermore, AI contributes to the carbon market, as it allows us to quantify and reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with meat production. Something that is increasingly valued in a context of growing demand for practices that meet sustainability criteria.
Internet, education and more technology
Elon Musk's Starlink was also cited as an innovative solution for the field. In many regions, internet access is still very limited. There is a belief, however, that efficient mobile internet will take over Brazil in the next five years. This is the bet of Matheus Ladeia, from erural, for example. His expectation is on the Starlink satellite network, which provides internet signal.
In the parking lots of auctions or livestock fairs, the number of pickup trucks with a Starlink bolted to the roof is absurd. The initial investment, R$3,000, is nothing for a farm, in addition to a recurring expense of R$184 per month, notes Ladeia.
Raúl Javales Jr., a strategy and technology specialist and professor at HSM and SingularityU Brazil, explains that “technology and management – especially strategy management – must be viewed as Siamese twins by rural producers.”
The producer has to answer a key question: what technology can I introduce into the process without impacting costs or causing losses?
Education is still a bottleneck
However, the study also highlights education as a bottleneck for the adoption of this technology. The lack of technical training among rural producers and professionals in the sector makes it difficult to implement AI-based solutions on a large scale, which could limit the benefits of the technology and its insertion into the carbon market.
Strengthening education and technical training would therefore be a fundamental step towards the wider and more effective adoption of these sustainable practices.
The article Brazilian agribusiness uses AI for cattle weighing and blockchain for traceability appeared first on BeInCrypto Brazil.