Banrural and Agrobit digitize agriculture with Agroamigo

How Banrural is transforming the agricultural productive sector in Guatemala with the Agroamigo digital platform.

We consider it extremely important to be and work closely with our customers, therefore, last December 2022 we made an in-person visit to Banrural, the rural bank of Guatemala, an entity of the Guatemalan country whose main objective is to help and advise in their agricultural production to more than 12.In an area where agriculture is one of the activities that generate the most employment in the country, it is essential that those who work in this field have access to state-of-the-art technology that allows them to make better decisions in order to obtain the best results, both economically and environmentally.

Throughout 2022 we developed Agroamigo, a mobile digital platform tailor-made for Banrural's clients. This tool provides the farmer with accurate satellite information of important data in real time, such as: weather, productive qualities, fertilization time, agricultural weather forecast, market prices, trends, etc. Through this platform, the farmer is able to identify where the soil is best, conditions suitable for crop application and nutritional reinforcement, verify pests and diseases or any other improvement work, in a very simple and dynamic way. With Agroamigo, good farming practices are being transformed, achieving a sustainable production result, obtaining economic improvements and preserving the environment.

Edgar Guzman, general manager of Banrural, comments that "With the creation and incorporation of this type of tools, we seek to generate a high impact on the production of each of the farmers to achieve greater profitability of their production, emphasizing that technology is a powerful tool to impact the development of both the farmer and the country itself".

On the other hand,Julio Suarez,manager of small and micro enterprises at Banrural, mentions some of the main benefits thatAgroAmigo provides to its farmers. Among them:

1. Locate their plots to identify and locate the qualities of the land to make better use of the soil, allowing them to evaluate the behavior, development and growth of the crop.
2. Identify pests and diseases that may affect the crop and the methods that can be used to control them.
3. Evaluate the health status of the crop by determining if it has problems in its development through the use of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Allowing farmers to support each other through early warnings of diseases, pests and weather conditions.
4. Providing a calendarized sequence of activities for crop applications such as fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides and herbicides.
5. Share information on good agricultural practices and gain knowledge on how to perform important activities for your crops.

Horacio Balussi, founder of Agrobit, who was with the farmers on a field day, explained to those present that Agrobit is the technological basis of Agroamigo, which was calibrated according to the crops of the country and through satellite and meteorological models to understand the behavior of each of these crops with the specific characteristics of each place. Some of the many crops in Guatemala that can be managed with Agroamigo are rice, corn, beans, onions, cabbage, lettuce, chili, tomato, potato, avocado, citrus, pineapple, bananas, coffee, cardamom and others that will be added to the agronomic base as more producers join the platform.

We thank the participants of this very fruitful meeting, who, through the technological contribution and our agronomic knowledge of so many years, we can be part of the change from traditional agriculture to a digital and sustainable agriculture. And thus help promote the growth of the thousands of farmers who are part of an essential link in the agri-food chain, through a unique user experience, to achieve together safer food and a better future.