Software para agropecuária: panorama do mercado brasileiro.

This paper aims to report the results of scientific research on the Brazilian market for agricultural software, conducted by Embrapa Agricultural Informatics and partner institutions, from 2008 to 2010. The methodology included the realization of expert panels in Agricultural Informatics, mapping of agricultural software supply through a survey, identification of demands on ICT in agriculture with agricultural cooperatives and institutions for Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (TARE), and identification of opportunities and trends by using the scenario approach. The results showed the characterization of 162 private companies that develop software for agriculture, by geographic distribution, company size and their 402 software products. Of the 230 rural cooperatives that responded to the survey, 39% use some software for agribusiness. Their demands in software are for marketing of agricultural products, farm management and accounting. A number of 132 Institutions for TARE took part in the survey. The scenario study considered consolidated trends related to the increasing importance of Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) to enhance the competitiveness of agribusiness products that tend to incorporate information, knowledge and technology to their products. According to this analysis, there is a trend of intense growth of the application of information technology to agriculture in coming years, considering prospective demands of various segments of agricultural market. However, there are still conservative barriers to break related to this market, moving towards the adoption of large integrated systems and Web-based, structured by strong service offer and innovation. Considering the increasing speed of evolution and transformation of ICT platforms and markets associated with them, studies to monitor the adoption and the implementation of ICT opportunities in agriculture should be promoted regularly in order to support public policies related to the agricultural and infrastructure sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]