Environment

Drones arise as an alternative to control pesticides use in Brazil

drones pesticides

In a year in which 239 new pesticides have been permitted for us in Brazil, in the face of local and international consumers protests, drones are arising as an alternative to maintain crops productivity while making more rational use of a controversial resource.

Drones have been on researchers’ minds in Brazil at least since the 1980s. Their adoption in agriculture has been fostered, since the very beginning, by companies like Embrapa (the Brazilian public agricultural research corporation) and universities like USP and ITA, that partnered in the ARARA project (Aeronave de Reconhecimento Assistida por Radio e Autônoma), a pioneer Brazilian drone used to monitor crops and endangered environmental areas.

According to the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC), the country had 26,016 drones in use for professional purposes as of June.

But only now has the government said it will regulate the use of this technology in agriculture through a normative instruction that is being elaborated by the Agriculture Ministry. The goal is to create the conditions...

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