Quality Internet Access Gap Leaves Rural Small Producers at a Disadvantage- University of São Paulo Study

A study conducted by KPMG, in partnership with the Brazilian Society of Mobility Engineers, showed that only 16% of rural properties in the country have access to a quality internet connection. As a result, small and medium-sized farmers are severely affected by the lack of this technology. Agronomist Rodrigo Maule, associate researcher at the Center for Sustainable Tropical Agriculture (STAC) and executive coordinator of the Public Policy Group at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (Esalq), both at USP, analyzes the factors that prevent good connectivity in the field and the impacts this has on farmers.

According to the expert, rural areas currently suffer from a lack of infrastructure to receive this connectivity, which demands high costs. In addition, he explains that telephone operators usually charge per customer and, on rural properties, there is low demand from consumers, who are very spread out, so it is not a volume of potential customers that is economically interesting. “This is always considering the issue of mobile telephony, because it is the most democratic means and it allows you to be in communication and access data wherever you are. So, it would basically be these two factors, the high cost and the issue of having few people, that make this issue unattractive for telephone operators to serve”, he explains.

Inclusion

According to the researcher, who wrote one of the chapters of the book Agro 4.0: Fundamentals, Realities and Perspectives for Brazil , connectivity in the field is essential for small producers and family farming and, on the other hand, the lack of it can affect the inclusion of these professionals in the production market. He says that the issue of communication and mobile telephony is of great importance for these producers, since it is capable of facilitating access to the market, the exchange of information with other farmers and also the commercialization of inputs. 

“This possibility of communication greatly increases access to services and we are moving towards a digital era, in which it is impossible to imagine not having this connectivity. Producers who are outside of these areas will certainly be more prone to exclusion, to being eliminated from the production issue, and may even lose their place in the market and in the competitive space”, he analyzes.

Improvements

According to Maule, one of the greatest benefits of improving connectivity on farms is access to technical assistance throughout the rural area. He explains that, often, a producer experiences a problem with their production and has to wait weeks for a professional technician to visit their property, which causes delays and directly affects production. With mobile communication, the producer could resolve the problem remotely, by exchanging messages, making content and media files available with a technician or another producer.

According to the researcher, the issuance of some documents that are part of farmers’ daily routine, such as invoices and animal transport guides, can be done very quickly using digital resources. However, when the producer does not have access to these tools, he says, it takes more time to travel to the nearest cities to resolve these issues. “Having access to good communication makes everything easier. This producer would have access to innovations, more direct communication, and could access issues that are interesting for improving their production unit. So the impact of this tool is huge for this segment of the population,” he says.

Investment

According to Rodrigo Maule, connectivity on rural properties is a much-discussed topic and is present on the agendas of the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), the Ministry of Communications (MCom) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa). He explains that all of these agencies have a Secretariat that specifically deals with issues that encompass this debate.

The expert says that a mechanism that has been very important for the connection agenda is the use of resources from the Telecommunications Services Universalization Fund (Fust). Established by Law 9,998 of August 17, 2000 to finance the implementation of communication services, the fund aims to expand and democratize access to communication technologies in schools, underprivileged communities and rural areas.

“What is still missing are good projects and more technical studies that could really start to access these resources and put into practice this expansion of connectivity in rural areas, thinking about these issues of productive inclusion and also more effective digitalization. This is an irreversible operation and we have to be able to offer these conditions to small, medium and large producers,” he concludes.