With a pandemic, the discrepancy between small and large businesses becomes even greater, which is why small companies from different sectors are going bankrupt. In Brazil, six hundred thousand small companies already closed during coronavirus pandemic. In the food production sector, this problem is even more serious, since the lack of small farmers, often responsible for supplying the local market, can lead to food shortages. In addition, the agricultural market monopoly is also capable of increasing the price of food products and increasing the concentration of income and unemployment.
Thus, in order to avoid the bankruptcy of small and medium producers, Cicada is a platform that facilitates access and interpretation of meteorological data. These data are currently avalaible for big producers, but they are inaccessible to most of small and medium producers, as they require a high degree of technical knowledge to be understood. The climatic and meteorological data are one of the main determinants of execution, mainly considering the UN data that affirm, more and more, the conditions that affect the production, and they are a great advantage of large producers. Therefore, Cicada increases the accessibility and usefulness of the meteorological data already existing and captured by Nasa, displaying them using small products to solve one of its main problems: a scalable unpredictability and a planning difficulty. In this way, the project encourages small and medium producers from the access and interpretation of economic information, helps in standardizing the harvest, decreases the reduction of the harvest and increases the use.
The Global Report on the Food Crisis 2020 predicts that 130 million more people will be in hunger by the end of 2020. As indicated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antônio Gutierrez, the world is going through an acute hunger crisis. Thus, understanding the importance of the food sector for human survival and a huge crisis in which it finds itself, the challenge “Food for Thought” was chosen over time. Analyzing reports and news about an economic situation during a pandemic and a post-pandemic, it was detected as small and medium-sized enterprises, due to less capital and technology, less caused by the effects of the crisis and more prone to bankruptcy. This metric is also valid for small and medium-sized agricultural producers who, during a pandemic, have an even greater difficulty in competing with large producers. In this way, understanding the importance of small producers for local livelihood and considering the disastrous consequences of their bankruptcy for the economy, contact a food and biotechnology scientist, who confirmed the high relevance of meteorological data for testing and quality of the harvest. In addition, he also consulted a doctoral entrepreneur at the Instituto Tecnológico Aeroespacial (ITA) and owner of a startup in the field of agrotechnology, which confirmed the advantage of large producers over small ones due to greater probability of scalability and, therefore, greater planning capacity. In addition, the opinion of an Electrolux technology specialist, search engine or e-commerce manager is also allowed, who will validate the data mirroring and the systemic architecture of the project are feasible. Finally, contact one agricultural producer in United Sates and another in Paraguay and both showed interest in the solution.
The information provided by Nasa will be vital for anticipating climatic conditions and for preventing losses and waste by small producers. Such data will be obtained from the partnership between NISR (National Institute for Space Research) and Nasa, sealed through the initiative of researcher Saulo Roberto Freitas. The researcher presented this year a project to improve Nasa's climate forecasting algorithm system. Some achievements presented by the group were: obtaining positive responses to the project by specialists from different parts of the food supply chain. In addition, the team was able to expand the usefulness of pre-existing data that was not accessible by small producers. On the other hand, the group had difficulty in systemically mapping all processes involved in the idealization of the solution. However, we have validated the systemic viability with IT professionals and believe that the project is viable and can make data crucial for better planting accessible.
INPE/ NASA Data
https://previsaonumerica.cptec.inpe.br/bam#
Validation of INPE’s climate model
http://www.inpe.br/noticias/noticia.php?Cod_Noticia=5354
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8xnQ6U7Hj0
Solution Inspiration
https://veja.abril.com.br/mundo/sem-contar-o-impacto-da-covid-19-fome-no-mundo-pode-dobrar-em-2020/
https://www.folhape.com.br/economia/economia/coronavirus/2020/04/01/NWS,135612,10,1669,ECONOMIA,2373-PRODUTORES-RURAIS-PREPARAM-PARA-DIMINUIR-RISCOS-CAUSADOS-PELA-PANDEMIA.aspx
https://agrosmart.com.br/blog/beneficios-de-ter-uma-previsao-do-tempo-fazenda/
http://www.fao.org/resources/infographics/infographics-details/en/c/1003923/
Environment impacts
https://cebds.org/mudancas-climaticas-ameacam-producao-alimentos/#.XtKiNjpKg2w
https://summitagro.estadao.com.br/importancia-clima-agronegocio/
https://blog.aegro.com.br/relacao-entre-clima-e-agricultura/