Industry 4.0 seen as too expensive for Colombia's small farmers

A study involving 10 industry 4.0 pilots with Colombian small farmers found the technologies are too expensive for the sector.

Hence, the producers capturing the data used in the pilots are unlikely to use it profitably, according to a study carried out by industry 4.0 NGO C4IR.CO under the Agro 4.0 program. The study was conducted last year, and the results were presented recently.

According to C4IR.CO, only 31% of agricultural actors, generally large agricultural companies, use technology for support or production.

In alliance with the ICT ministry, C4IR.CO developed 10 pilots in the departments of Antioquia, Santander, Huila, Córdoba, Magdalena, Caldas, Caquetá and La Guajira for cocoa, avocado and coffee crops. Climate and soil sensors were installed, AI-calculated fertilization recommendations given, and digital avenues created for product commercialization.

“We encountered several challenges when carrying out this project,” Adriana Gallego, Agro 4.0 project leader at C4IR, told BNamericas.

Among the challenges were access to territorial information, training of farmers in the use of technology, and connectivity, Gallego said.

“We found that many of these farmers had never used an email or participated in a virtual meeting. So, we had a mission to educate them in the use of these technologies,” she said.

Although the last spectrum auction included rural coveragecommitments, Gallego said more powerful antennas are needed in these areas. "Sometimes a site appears with coverage, but when one arrives in the territory the reality is very different," she said.

While costs are high generally, fertilization optimization, among other cases, is cheaper.

“Although the costs were a problem, we found that the solution could be in the articulation with territorial entities, associations and the different productive links of these agricultural chains,” Gallego said.

This year, the focus will be on connecting small farmers with small and medium-sized enterprises, and territorial and government entities to create a data market that will make information profitable and reduce costs.

Gallego said three major objectives this year involve raising awareness among business leaders of the importance and benefits of 4.0 technologies, connect farmers with companies, and design and implement a 4.0 data market based on technology facilitated by last year’s pilots which continue to generate data.

For the latter objective, 10 climate and five soil sensors were installed. Artificial intelligence was used to analyze 10 crops, including fertilization recommendations. Images from satellites and drones were analyzed for 10 different crops, a control panel and alerts were created for the 10 main beneficiaries and three electronic commerce portals were created for the 100 participants (10 directly and 90 indirectly).