SINDAG’s bet is high on the success of the return of the face-to-face version of the largest sector’s meeting in the country, which takes place from July 18 to 21, in São Paulo

With only two weeks left for the Agricultural Aviation Congress of Brazil (AgAv Congress) 2022 to land in the city of Sertãozinho, in the São Paulo state, the countdown only increases expectations for the return of the face-to-face version of the main event in this sector in the country – and one of the largest in world’s agav industry. The schedule prepared by the Brazilian Union of Agricultural Aviation Companies (SINDAG) will take place from July 18^th to 21^st, at Centro de Eventos Zanini, in western part of the city. Wednesday, the machinery will get ready the land dirt runway for planes in the area alongside of the 12,000 square meter pavilion that will host the event. Will be by there that, following week, the planes that will be part of the internal and the external exhibitions should arrive.

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Inside the pavilion, more than 150 brands will be present at the aircraft, drone, technology, equipment, and service booths. There will also be panels and debates on market trends and policies for the sector, among other topics. The program there also includes the research exhibition of the Scientific Congress of Agricultural Aviation and the graduation of the first two classes of the MBA in Ag Aviation Management, Innovation and Sustainability (a partnership between SINDAG and IMED College). In addition to the graduation of pilots who participate in the 4th Brazilian Air Combat Forest Fire Course.

Training against forest fires will take place in the four days prior to the AgAv Congress (July 15th to 18th, at an ag aviation base in Ribeirão Preto city – neighboring Sertãozinho). The graduation of the pilot’s class will also have the presence of former astronaut and ex minister of Science and Technology of Brazil, Marcos Pontes.

In fact, SEATs’ operations against fire have gained strength as one of the main topics of institutional meetings and conversations that SINDAG leaders will have with technicians, authorities, and politicians during the event. This is because of the approval (last June 22nd) of the bill that inserts agricultural aviation into the government’s firefighting strategies in Brazil. With one more detail in SINDAG’s event: aircrafts dropping water in simulations of air fighting forest fire will be part of the demonstrations for the public, in the outdoor area of the agav expo.

Last year, according to a survey by SINDAG with agav companies and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio, which manages the country’s national parks), the Brazilian agricultural aviation launched almost 20 million liters of water against wildfires in the Pantanal, Chapada dos Veadeiros, Cerrado Nordestino (Brazilian northeastern savanna) and other conservation areas (include in the Legal Amazon). As well as fires in crops especially in the Midwest and Southeast regions in the country.

This number is far short of what would be needed to adequately assist firefighters on the ground – in 2021, the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) detected 5,469 fire spots by satellites. Therefore, the expectation is that the new law will help to reinforce air assistance for the environment. Include early warning and firefighting systems.

Crucial moment to fine-tune strategies

For the SINDAG’s president, Thiago Magalhães Silva, the Brazilian AgAv Congress returns to its old form at an important moment, especially in discussions about the market and institutional relations. In addition to panels addressing fuel prices, harvest expectations, demand for commodities, maintenance costs and other market demands and trends. The program will also have debates on the digitization of administrative procedures in the companies, continuous improvement, and technologies of application.

About the attractions at SINDAGs convention and expo, this year drones are also among the stars of the agav’s technologies, equipment, and services show. In no less than 14 stands and including an agricultural UAV by an ethanol-powered engine, which promises to break the autonomy limitations imposed by electric batteries – until then the main obstacle to better performances in farming.

In the segment of aircrafts, the confirmation of the North American manufacturers once again highlights the importance of the Brazilian market, which has the second largest agav fleet in the world – behind only the United States. And that last year grew 3.4%, reaching 2,432 aircraft operating in 23 states, according to a survey in the records of the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC).

In fact, an increase that was not greater only because the agricultural aircrafts manufacturers have not been able to keep pace with the industry’s demand. The Brazilian market asked for 50 more aircraft than the 80 that entered in 2021, according to estimates by the SINDAG.

According to SINDAG’S CEO, Gabriel Colle, the aerial applicators event’s preliminary numbers already point to a new record-breaking edition this year. “The area of stands exceeds by 50% the space of the last in-person edition (in 2019) – which had already been the largest until then since the beginning of aero-agricultural events in the country, in the 1970s”, complete the director.

In the part of embedded technologies – another traditionally strong point of the AgAv Congress, companies arrive not only with a wider variety of suppliers, but also showing the credentials of a Brazil that already exports cutting-edge equipment. “We have at least 30 companies that are exhibiting for the first time at our Congress”, explains the administrative coordinator of Sindag (and of the event), Marília Luíze Schüler.

New times on 75th anniversary of Brazilian AgAv

This year, the Brazilian AgAv Congress is themed New Times. What could not be different, after the end of the Covid-19 lockdown phase. But also celebrating the past, as the meeting in Sertãozinho marks the celebrations of 75 years of Brazilian agricultural aviation. Thus, in addition to the tributes provided for in the program, the main spaces of the event were renamed in reverence for the aerial applicators pioneers in the country.

So, the main arena for lectures and debates is called Clóvis Gularte Candiota, the patron of the Brazilian agricultural aviation. On the afternoon of August 19, 1947, he became the first agricultural pilot and (after few monts) one of the first ag aviation entrepreneurs in the country, along with the agronomist Leôncio de Andrade Fontelles. In fact, both were protagonists in the 1947’s first crop-dusting flight, against a cloud of locusts in the city of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul state. Fontelles ordered the hopper from a city tinker and operated it during the flight – on board to the Muniz M-9 biplane of the city’s aeroclub. By the way, at the AvAg Congress the agronomist named the auditorium of technical and product presentations.

The first Brazilian woman agricultural pilot is remembered at Praça Ada Leda Rogato, inside the fair’s space. She had its first ag avation mission in the middle of Carnival Saturday (showing that, in the agriculture, work doen’t stop), on February 7, 1948. Less than six months after the flight of Candiota and Fontelles and, this time, to combat the coffee berry borer in plantations in the São Paulo’s municipalities of Gália, Garça, Marília and Cafelândia. At the time, she piloted a CAP-4 Paulistinha model, 65 hp, at the service of the Brazilian Coffee Institute (IBC, in Portuguese