Precision Agriculture in Brazil: The Trajectory of 25 Years of Scientific Research

Maurício Roberto Cherubin (), Júnior Melo Damian, Tiago Rodrigues Tavares (), Rodrigo Gonçalves Trevisan, André Freitas Colaço, Mateus Tonini Eitelwein, Maurício Martello, Ricardo Yassushi Inamasu, Osmar Henrique de Castro Pias and José Paulo Molin
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Maurício Roberto Cherubin: Department of Soil Science, “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture (ESALQ), University of São Paulo (USP), Piracicaba 13418-900, Brazil
Júnior Melo Damian: Department of Soil Science, “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture (ESALQ), University of São Paulo (USP), Piracicaba 13418-900, Brazil
Tiago Rodrigues Tavares: Center of Nuclear Energy in Agriculture (CENA), University of Sao Paulo (USP), Piracicaba 13416-000, Brazil
Rodrigo Gonçalves Trevisan: Smart Sensing Brasil, Piracicaba 13416-404, Brazil
André Freitas Colaço: CSIRO, Waite Campus, Locked Bag 2, Glen Osmond 5064, Australia
Mateus Tonini Eitelwein: Smart Sensing Brasil, Piracicaba 13416-404, Brazil
Maurício Martello: Department of Biosystems Engineering, “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture (ESALQ), University of São Paulo (USP), Piracicaba 13418-900, Brazil
Ricardo Yassushi Inamasu: Embrapa Instrumentação, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Sao Carlos 13560-970, Brazil
Osmar Henrique de Castro Pias: Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology Farroupilha, Júlio de Castilhos 98130-000, Brazil
José Paulo Molin: Department of Biosystems Engineering, “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture (ESALQ), University of São Paulo (USP), Piracicaba 13418-900, Brazil

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-29

Abstract: Precision agriculture (PA) stands out as an innovative way to manage production resources, increasing the efficiency and the socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of agricultural systems. In Brazil, the principles and tools of PA started to be adopted in the late 1990s. To reveal the scientific trajectory and advances in PA taken over the past 25 years in Brazil, we conducted a comprehensive and systematic literature review. After searching for available peer-reviewed literature, 442 publications were selected to compose the database. Our bibliometric review showed that the scientific PA network is growing in Brazil, with the number and quality of publications, the number of interactions among research groups, and the number of international collaborations increasing. Soil and plant management are the two main pillars of PA research (~61% of the publications). More recently, research has evolved to include other areas, such as the use of proximal sensors to monitor soil and crop development, remote sensing using images from satellites and remotely piloted aircraft systems, and the development of decision support tools. A substantial part of Brazilian PA research is marked by the evaluation and adaptation of imported technologies, a scenario that is slowly changing with the growth of well-trained human resources and advances in national industry. Based on Brazilian scientific history and remaining challenges, the key potential areas for future research are (i) the development of digitally based decision support systems, i.e., a shift of focus from on-farm data technologies towards effective, site-specific decision making based on digital data and improved analytics; (ii) on-farm precision experimentation to underpin on-farm data collection and the development of new decision tools; and (iii) novel machine learning approaches to promote the implementation of digitally based decision support systems.

Keywords: precision farming; bibliometrics; scientific network; soil health; crop yield (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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