Agronic: an opportunity to grow sustainably

World agriculture is going through a great transformation today thanks to technology. Every day the work in the field is based on the opportunity and accuracy offered by different technological tools based on computer science, computing and the analysis of large databases, to the point that today we are talking about a new branch of agronomy : the agronic.

Historically, the Colombian sugarcane agribusiness has been a technified productive sector, but with agronics the possibilities of expanding this technification increase to progress all not only in productivity, but also in the environment, with ecosystems in which natural resources are priority in their conservation.

Cenicaña, with mills and growers, has been taking steps in that direction with projects that have shown their benefits and that it is worthwhile for the entire agribusiness to start implementing.

This is the case of the set of satellite navigation stations that correct space-time signals of the planet in real time and with which the geopositioning of precision agriculture equipment used in the sector is improved. It is the GNSS RTK Network that came into operation in 2016.

Through sensors, technology has also had the opportunity to become an effective tool to improve water management in irrigation. Hence, Cenicaña validates its usefulness under the conditions of the Cauca river valley and the cultivation of sugar cane. And since behind water there is an enormous environmental responsibility, framed in the support of the Water for Life and Sustainability Fund Foundation, hydrological monitoring is carried out that would only be possible thanks to technology.

More recently, we launched two tools that facilitate the access and use of geospatial data from agribusiness and climate information from the Cauca River Valley at different scales of time and space. The first, called Geoportal, was launched to the public earlier this year; while the Meteoportal is just socializing with the community.

Even more novel, due to the intelligent technology component behind it, is the Sugar Cane Disease Recognition application that is available on digital distribution platforms, and streamlines and facilitates decision-making related to crop health .

In this edition we present three of these technologies, so that they are widely known by all and used by the sector so that together we grow in a sustainable way.

Álvaro Amaya Estevez
CEO, Cenicaña