Survey shows 71% of households in rural areas had internet access last year in Brazil

07/25/2022

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Cristian Dalben — Foto: Divulgação

The arrival of broadband internet to the Santo Antônio do Desejado farm, in Nova Ubiratã, a municipality in Mato Grosso with 11,000 inhabitants, spared farmer Cristian Dalben from a labor problem. “In the beginning, we didn’t have so much difficulty in hiring people because there was no internet. Today, I have 26-year-olds working with me,” he says, “and this younger generation doesn’t stay on a farm without a connection.”

Internet came to the property about 10 years ago, but via radio, with very low speed and limited to the farmhouse. “To shoot a video? No chance. Pictures were also difficult,” recalls the rural producer. Mr. Dalben managed to bring fiber optic connection to the farm three years ago, which, according to him, increased the satisfaction level of the workers. “Our employees are happy to be on the farm because they can have fun during their free time, watch Netflix or just surf the Internet,” he says.

The report on the benefits that the arrival of quality internet has brought to the workers of the Santo Antonio do Desejado farm shows that improved access represents more than just the possibility of using connected agricultural machinery or technologies of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT): it also changes the daily lives of all people involved in production. And this is no small matter.

According to a recent survey by the Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (Cetic), 71% of households in rural areas had internet access last year in Brazil, an advance of 20 percentage points over 2019. Of this total, 58% had fixed broadband.

Mr. Dalben understands well the difference it makes to have internet access in the fields, and not only to streamline production. Thirteen years ago, when his father became ill and he had to leave Curitiba, where he was studying mechanical engineering, to take over the family business in Mato Grosso, the only means of contact with the world beyond the limits of the property was a landline phone. “I spent three years isolated,” he says.

Today, broadband keeps the farm connected to the world, which makes workers happier and allows farmers to extract the full potential of contracted digital technologies. The farm is connected to Bayer’s Climate FieldView platform and John Deere’s Operation Center. Before the connection reached the entire area of Santo Antônio do Desejado, the investment was underused, since the sending of data for analysis only happened when the machines returned to a point closer to the farm headquarters, where there was a connection.

“Recently, I was in the United States and the people were working on the harvest of the second yearly crop corn. I was able to observe the whole farm in real time,” says the farmer. “And days ago, a machine broke down. If this had happened in the past [when there was no internet], we would have had to run into town. This time, John Deere sent an online update that solved it.”

Connectivity improves business for equipment users and also for manufacturers. “Before, the technician would leave the city, go to the farm, come back, pick up the machine, and only then go to make the repair,” says Estela Dias, tactical marketing manager for precision technologies at John Deere in the country. “We have improved this service. Now, we can access the monitor of the equipment to understand the problem and go straight with the solution.”

Since 2020, a partnership between the U.S. agricultural machinery manufacturer and phone operator Claro has brought internet to an area of 2 million hectares. With ongoing negotiations, there is an expectation of coverage of more 3.5 million hectares. “Democratizing the connection in the fields also means connecting people. It helps retention [of workers in the fields], facilitates the arrival of content to them and allows advances such as telemedicine.”

Bayer, owner of the Clima FieldView platform, has been working to extend the reach of 4G technology in rural areas through ConectarAgro, an association it helped found. “Increasing connectivity in the field represents an opportunity for farmers to enjoy even more benefits and tools that help them make more accurate decisions,” says Thiago Bortoli, the platform’s head of marketing for Latin America.

The results of the farm in Nova Ubiratã are an example of the positive impacts of digital farming technology on crop productivity. Before the arrival of fast internet, Mr. Dalben produced 62 bags of soy and 100 bags of corn per hectare; now, the production is 75 bags of soy and 174 bags of corn per hectare, a performance well above the national average.

According to Marcos Ferrari, executive president of Conexis, association that represents telecoms operators in Brazil, the expansion of internet in farms has gained momentum since 2017. “This movement is expected to become even more accentuated after the auction of 5G coverage, in which companies have also committed to bring the 4G signal to thousands of municipalities,” he says.

*By José Florentino — São Paulo

Source: Valor International

https://valorinternational.globo.com/