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I was born in Pelotas, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, but I have lived in Rio de Janeiro for about thirteen years. I have a degree in systems analysis and development and joined Checkplant about eighteen years ago as a developer. Since then I have come a long way in the company, now I am the technical director and have been coordinating the technology team for about nine years.
Farmbox is a digital platform developed by Checkplant to help Brazilian farmers manage their farms and make data-driven decisions. Its story began around 2010 or 2011, when professionals came to us with a series of issues related to pest and disease control, and agronomic management on farms specializing in cotton and soybeans, across the board. We saw an opportunity to create a solution to address these needs. Our first product was the Caderno de Campo, used for agricultural management. But it was too focused on fruit farming, and over time we thought of creating a new product, more focused on the needs of other crops. And that is how, in 2013, Farmbox was born. Since then we haven't stopped improving the platform, which today supports farmers at all stages: from crop planning and planting to crop monitoring and development, from pest and disease control to operations management and fumigation, to harvest.
From the beginning, the entire Farmbox creation and development process was characterized by close collaboration between our team and farmers. The result is a product perfectly adapted to the realities and needs of Brazilian agriculture, enabling detailed crop monitoring, facilitating the identification of problems and speeding up decision-making. This is a product at the service of farmers created by an independent company with no conflicts of interest. The support team is very strong and strenuously committed to the success of users so that they can take full advantage of the platform.
It is true that farms here in Brazil are huge, and size affects the digitization process because farmers have very specific needs that are directly related to the size of their farms. I would say that it is almost impossible to monitor every aspect of agronomic management on a large farm here in Brazil without the help of a tool like Farmbox. You also have to keep in mind that on a larger farm there is usually also more machinery, and this machinery has to be managed, as well as its operations. In addition, we still have a big problem with Internet connection in Brazil. Today things are better than when we started with Checkplant, but the problem persists. That is why, from the beginning, Farmbox was developed to be a powerful tool even offline.
Correct. In fact it was developed to work offline. When you go into the fields a little bit, the connection often disappears, especially in the case of very large farms, but Farmbox can be used offline: you enter the data, and as soon as the connection is re-established, it is synchronized.
The main challenge is the constant search for technological innovations. Of course, the priority is to keep improving the platform without compromising reliability or user experience. Farmbox must continue to evolve and improve without losing sight of the needs and concrete reality of Brazilian farmers, because that is what has allowed us to get this far. Of course, when faced with these kinds of challenges, teamwork is key; fortunately in Checkplant we have an excellent team!
Over the past year, we have devoted ourselves to developing a new application and planning tool. We are also working on a new tool to manage collection operations.
This union is a very important step for us because it will allow us to expand our technological capabilities and offer an even more comprehensive solution to Brazilian farmers. We will be able to integrate new features, evolve the product and bring further innovation to make Farmbox even more efficient. But I think the most important thing is that our goal remains the same: to support farmers with cutting-edge technologies to improve productivity and sustainability. By teaming up with xFarm Technologies, we can strengthen and accelerate this mission.
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