The start of the 2023, 2024 harvest was given in the main sugarcane and energy producing region. All teams lined up, trained and qualified, with the same objective: to deliver great results, as our eternal champion Ayrton Senna said, “in adversity, some give up while others break records”.

This is my thirtieth harvest, that is, this year marks 30 years focused and dedicated to sharing knowledge with sugarcane producers. I started my professional career in one of the largest associations of sugarcane producers in Brazil, the Association of Cane Planters of the West of the State of São Paulo, and, in that beginning, I had the privilege of having our late Manoel Carlos de Azevedo Ortolan as my superior and mentor, better known as Maneco, who has always defended the interests of producers in a pure way, with technical knowledge, conviction and a focus on Innovation.

We know that to innovate is to create something new, to introduce novelties, to renew. Innovating is synonymous with changing or improving something that already exists. Today, we have the opportunity that, instead of starting to create a new technology from scratch, we can use existing technologies and find new solutions, which is faster and more efficient in solving problems.

Innovation goes hand in hand with good management and the intelligent use of this technological “package” with the aim of envisioning a more sustainable future in food production. With the expansion of the sugarcane culture, which advanced into new areas in edaphoclimatic environments with different production potentials, where this potential is given by the interaction between plant, soil and climate, achieving this potential or not depends on agronomic management practices and the quality of the crops, agricultural operations.

The great challenge of this expansion is to act with technical, social, economic and environmental responsibility. In this context, mapping the soil and identifying production environments is essential for the correct allocation of sugarcane varieties. Within this context, Precision Agriculture allows the localized management of crops and emerges as a promise in the Brazilian agricultural scenario.

Precision Agriculture can be defined as a set of tools and technologies that allow the producer to manage the soil and his crops in a localized way, improving the entire production system in order to improve the economic return. The first academic reports proving the spatial variability of soil attributes within a plot date back to the 1920s. In Brazil, Precision Agriculture was introduced in the mid-1990s, but significant advances only took place from 2000 onwards, with the widespread use of GPS.

Thus, a new phase of Precision Agriculture advanced, facilitating the management of processes, with real-time information, detailed reports and incorporation of technologies embedded in agricultural machines. In conventional agriculture, soil fertility management is based only on average nutrient contents.

That is, few soil samples are taken for planning the use of fertilizers and correctives. In this way, the chemical analysis of the soil expresses a single median result for the entire plot, disregarding the presence of spatial variability and assuming that the soil properties are similar throughout the area.

Within this context, maps of variability of soil characteristics are great allies of the producer, as they gather information about the location and the quantities or needs of inputs at each point in the field, supporting the most accurate decision-making. Knowledge of this variability becomes fundamental for localized management within the stand, optimizing localized applications of correctives and fertilizers.

Due to this importance, the Cooperative of Sugarcane Planters of the West of the State of São Paulo has been working for some years now on the acquisition of equipment (trucks) with embedded technology that carry out the application of correctives at varying rates. In the Soil Laboratory of the Cooperative of Sugarcane Planters of the West of the State of São Paulo, there are constant investments in the acquisition of equipment and constant improvement of its team, aiming at its evolution in the provision of the service, obeying all the methodologies linked to modern concepts of Agriculture of Precision. 

Copercana Agricultura de Precision was born, which offers its members the services of mapping and georeferenced collection of soil samples, laboratory analysis, preparation of the application map and distribution of corrective at a variable rate. It is a first, but firm, step by the cooperative to provide its members with what is new in terms of precision, without the need for large investments.



The technique generates a regular virtual grid over the plot through a geographic information system, dividing the field into regular polygons (squares or rectangles). Within each area, a sample point is generated that can be located in the center. The coordinates of the points are transferred to a Global Navigation Satellite System receiver that will guide the collection team to each sampling location.

The execution of the service is carried out with a Honda Fourtrax 4 by 4 TRX 420 ATV , equipped with a SACI driller with adjustment in the height of the collection drills, where the operator works with a GPS plus a field program that serves as a guide for surveying and conference of georeferenced coordinates.

After defining the grid sampling, which can vary from one point per hectare to one point every five hectares, samples are taken at two depths, from 0 to 25 and the other from 25 to 50 centimeters, formed by the material extracted from eight to ten subsamples , which composes a composite sample for each depth. The quality of soil sampling is a determining factor and is directly related to quality in the rest of the cycle.

Definition of the Sample Grid:

Cooperative of Sugarcane Planters of the West of the State of São Paulo Soil Laboratory , accredited with ISO 17025 (which attests to its high quality), which, through its state-of-the-art structure, uses the methodology of the Agronomic Institute in its tests.

The relationship between the results of the fertility tests and the georeferenced information creates the recommendation map, a digital expression of the need for soil correction, which is part of the scope of the Precision Agriculture services performed by the Cooperative of Sugarcane Planters of the West of the State of São Paulo.

Thus, the spatial variability maps represent the digitization of soil characteristics on a small scale, presenting precision in the quantity of attributes analyzed and in their location, that is, they indicate the amount of corrective that the soil really needs, in the appropriate place.



Both in liming and plastering, the doses are discriminated by different colors and found through the maximum and minimum dose interval with the desired V%. With the calculation, the producer knows the total amount he will need, the percentage and the size of each dose range, as shown in the highlighted image.

When we impute the map to the receiver of the trucks that apply the correctives at a variable rate, it will change the dose automatically every time the recommendation area changes. The whole cycle ends with specialized agronomic work, which is not just a matter of advising on management, but mainly of presenting the results and guiding the cooperative producer in making the best decisions.

Normally, all those who seek development, whether economic or even professional, set their expectations only, or mainly, on the final objective. I agree that we must and must pursue our goals, without neglecting or forgetting to review certain thoughts, paradigms, postures and actions, as new results cannot be achieved using old practices. Every action has a reaction and every effect has its cause.

However, the success of our activity is built step by step, and each one of them is essential. Let us know how to take these steps wisely, giving due value to each lesson that life gives us. I close these brief reflections with a phrase from Paul Krugman: “Productivity is not everything, but in the long run it is almost everything”.