"Not having expensive technology increases costs. It is a matter of efficiency," said innovator Xavier Cárdenas, who presented his software, traceability and photos taken by drones projects, aimed at the agricultural sector, to the Vice President of Ecuador Jorge Glas Espinel.
Glas received Cardenas in his office, where he explained his projects and the benefits they would bring to the country. The software would allow agricultural producers to have more information to better manage their crops. "With this system, farmers can take preventive decisions, which would save costs," Cardenas said.
He also mentioned that, among other advantages, this specialized system would allow producers to have a record of their main production and planning processes, budgets and costs of labour. He said this could be achieved by implementing crop intelligence with geo-referenced maps and traffic light indicators (red, critical level, yellow, preventive, and green, optimal).
Cardenas also presented a traceability project that aims at offering the market information about the agricultural products' quality by means of a bar code that would detail the products' characteristics, origin and production method.
"Traceability is a great challenge, as it is a product's warranty, this is an enabling condition for export. Today international markets require us to ensure product quality since its inception," said the vice president, who stressed the importance of achieving traceability in different Ecuadorian productive chains to increase their value.
To conclude his presentation, Cardenas presented his project to take photos of the crops by drones. These images would then be processed in specialized software that would assist producers in making decisions against the various problems their crops might have.
The vice president said these innovative proposals were aimed at helping change the Productive Matrix. They are projects that would help the sector increase its efficiency, productivity and that would help ensure the quality of Ecuadorian products, said the vice president.