The internet of things and the new dynamics of agricultural production in brazilian and french rural areas

• Grant number: 23/06384-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: March 01, 2024
• End date: February 28, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Abid Castillo
• Grantee: Mait Bertollo
• Supervisor: Herve Emilien Rene Thery
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 20/07447-4 - The internet of things and the new dynamics of agricultural production in the Brazilian countryside, BP.PD

Abstract

The objects and informational systems currently used in agricultural production in Brazil have broadened both their participation and their technical development in activities that potentially have an impact on increasing productivity. In the globalized agribusiness sector, these systems and technical objects, such as sensors, equipment and machines, digitally connected through the Internet of Things (IoT), have enabled huge volumes of various types of data to be shared at great speed, thereby promoting the production processes of the various productive spatial circuits. Although, in Brazil, there are disparities in access and connection quality, possibilities for the use of IoT have opened up due to the increased pace of data collection and processing, necessitating the connection of both rural establishments and production stages to telecommunications networks. These transformations rely on public agents, such as research institutions and entities of the federal executive branch, such as Ministries, and private agents such as Bigtechs, Fintechs and Agtechs, which tend to centralize production processes through the use of digital platforms by producers. In the case of France, such dynamics in rural areas are at a more generalized stage, and have expanded across the territory, with experimental farms that use and test new technologies for more widespread use among small and mid-sized producers, in addition to the agribusiness sector, with massive public and private investments. An analysis of the agents involved in the development, dissemination and connection of these systems and the impacts on agricultural production offers an overview and answers regarding the use of IoT in Brazilian and French rural areas. This will contribute greatly to understanding how the dissemination of these networked informational techniques may be a possibility in mitigating the disparities between large and small producers, particularly with regard to family farming and agroecology, in a context involving the participation of several institutions, which form cooperation circles in a space that acts on production in Brazil and France, as incentives for the dynamics of informational, productive and agricultural policies in both countries.