PHOTONICS APPLIED TO AGRIBUSINESS

The Future of Smart Farming

Photonics can be defined as the science and technology of light, which is a broad but accurate definition. However, suppose we wish to narrow it. In that case, we could describe Photonics as the application of fundamental principles that emerged from the three major branches of optical science: geometrical, physics, and quantum optics.
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Photonics applied to the agriculture field is called Agriphotonics. Thus, for example, any device that, in any way, uses the fundamental principles of the major branches of optical science, solo or combined, to improve any agribusiness process should be called an Agriphotonic device or technique.
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Goiás' state is one of the largest Brazilian grain producers. According to its secretary agriculture, Goiás is the largest tomato producer, the second-largest producer of sugar cane, and the fourth-largest producer of soybean in the country. The bovine herd is the 2nd in the Brazilian ranking, corresponding to 11% of the Brazilian market, one of the world's bovine meat producers. Despite the state's increasing industrialization, the above numbers keep farming as the developmental key of Goiás. Due to the business and economy context, the Photonics Research Group of the Federal University of Goiás has decided to start this enterprise research project.
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The idea of applying photonic devices to enhance agribusiness is already used by some private companies, particularly by exploring data acquired through imaging techniques. Still, the main objective of this enterprise project consists of combining imaging and spectroscopic techniques to enhance the analysis performance of the investigated subject in the field. 

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If you are an agribusiness professional or related and are interested in more information regarding this project, contact us by clicking here!