Brasília, October 20, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The coffee crop will have its areas defined by satellite, beginning in November. The National Supply Company (Conab) will conduct the study with resources from the Secretariat of Production and Commercialization of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply (Mapa), according to an executive order published Friday (17) in the Official Federal Daily Register.

R$ 1.7 million will be spent to hire personnel and purchase image-processing equipment and the satellite photos. The project for the Methodological Improvement of the Crop Forecasting System in Brazil will be implanted first in Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, and São Paulo, responsible for over 70% of national coffee production.

Surveys of the harvest are currently carried out only through sampling, with field research involving interviews with representative entities of the coffee sector. From now on, Conab will also be able to use geotechnological procedures, such as remote sensoring, GPS (satellite tracking), and geographic information systems.

The project represents a partnership with eleven federal and state institutions. With the new system, the company will obtain better quality and more precise information for its analyses of coffee productivity, since it will also use agro-meteorological statistics. (DAS)