"EMU: Acquisition of equipments for the National Agro-photonics Laboratory".

• Grant number: 23/17340-0
• Support Opportunities: Research Infrastructure Program - Small Medium Sized
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Débora Marcondes Bastos Pereira
• Grantee: Débora Marcondes Bastos Pereira
• Host Institution: Embrapa Instrumentação Agropecuária. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA). Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (Brasil). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Ladislau Martin Neto ; Luiz Alberto Colnago

Abstract

The globalization of food trade, world population growth, climate change, and rapidly changing food systems impact food security. As one of the major players in global food production, Brazil has to worry about meeting global demands for safe food. Establishing production systems with more nutritious and safer foods that benefit the population's health also supports economies, commerce, and tourism, stimulating sustainable development. To significantly increase food production, agribusiness must implement technologies that range from the quality of inputs, soil and crop management and monitoring, new post-harvest techniques, and quality control in the agroindustry. The demand for sensors and monitoring systems that allow clean analyses (without chemical preparation) and low cost grows every year at all points in the food production chain. Photonic techniques have been highlighted for agri-environmental applications because they present the characteristics of rapid analysis, potential for field applications, and enable measurements in natural samples. The National Laboratory of Agri-photonics (Lanaf - webpage: https://www.embrapa.br/laboratorio-nacional-de-agro-fotonica-lanaf) was created to strengthen in Brazil the area of photonics applications in both agriculture and the environment. Lanaf belongs to the Embrapa Instrumentação infrastructure and is part of the Brazilian Photonics Laboratory System (Sisfóton) supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI). Its activities range from the most basic research, advancing the frontier of knowledge, to open innovation projects for developing products with the support of private sector companies. Lanaf's objective is to generate knowledge, technologies, and innovation from photonics applied to the entire agribusiness chain. His research area encompasses the applications of spectroscopy and photonics in the area of agricultural inputs (such as machines, sensors, fertilizer analysis, soil, seeds, etc.), rural production (technologies for soil mapping, plant diseases, animal management, etc.), post-harvest (technologies for food quality control) and control of agro-industrial processes. Currently, Lanaf's infrastructure has various equipment, among which the following systems stand out: uv-visible light absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy, laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy ( NIR and MIR), electron paramagnetic spectroscopy (EPR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), laser-induced plasma optical emission spectroscopy (LIBS), atomic absorption spectroscopy, CHN elemental analyzer, fluorescence and imaging microscopy fluorescence. This entire infrastructure is controlled and made available through software (Labgesis) that is under the supervision of the Lanaf management committee and the laboratory management sector of Embrapa Instrumentação (SGL). The current proposal aims to add new photonic techniques to this infrastructure with great potential for applications in agriculture, and bring maintenance to some equipment that is essential for Lanaf research. (AU)