AI · Agriculture
AI for rural producers: practical uses in the field
From a phone, producers can use AI for costs, prices, paperwork, weather and sales. Always with official data and a trusted technician alongside.
bairogonzalez.com team, drawing on Bairo's story · Published
Rural producers don't need expensive machinery to start using artificial intelligence. With a phone and whatever signal there is, you can already use an assistant like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Copilot to organize the harvest's costs, understand contracts and documents, prepare a negotiation with a buyer, write messages to customers, learn about a pest from a photo and build a sales spreadsheet. The big precision-agriculture technologies exist and are growing, but the first gain usually lies in day-to-day management.
In the field, AI is a pocket adviser, not an agronomist. Pest diagnosis, pesticide prescriptions and animal handling stay with the technician or the veterinarian.
Why AI is not a chatbot
Many producers have received an automated message from a company and didn't like it. The AI this text is about is different: it works for you, with your numbers and your reality.
In Bairo's view, "AI is not a chatbot, but an extension of your consciousness." For those who grow crops and raise animals, he sees the tool as an extension of the producer's eye and arithmetic: it helps you see and calculate, but the one who knows the land is the one who walks on it.
Step by step today
- Organize the harvest's costs:
I'm a producer of [crop] in [region], with [area size].
My expenses this season were: [list inputs, labor,
freight, machinery, with amounts]. Organize them in a table, calculate the
total cost and the cost per [sack / box / kilo] and tell me what
minimum sale price covers those costs.
- Track prices with official sources. Ask where to check quotes and bulletins (Conab, wholesale food markets, cooperatives, research institutes) and look them up directly there. AI helps you read and compare, but it shouldn't be the source of the price.
- Prepare the negotiation:
I'm going to negotiate [quantity] of [product] with [type of buyer].
My cost is [amount] and the reference price today is [amount, with
the source]. List the arguments I have, what to ask
about payment terms and freight, and what to request in writing.
- Understand paperwork and contracts. A sales contract, a land lease, a rural credit contract, a producer's invoice: ask for a simple explanation and a list of questions for your accountant, the union or a lawyer.
- Use photos carefully. Photograph the leaf or the pest and ask for possibilities and questions to take to the technician. Don't apply any product on the AI's suggestion: pesticides require an agronomist's prescription.
- Check the weather at the source. Use official meteorological institutes and ask the AI to help you understand the forecast and plan the week's tasks.
- Sell directly. Ask for messages to customers at markets, restaurants and shops in the region, and a weekly order table.
- Seek technical assistance and programs. Ask what kinds of support exist for your profile (public technical assistance, cooperatives, rural credit) and confirm with your state's agency or the rural union.
How Bairo did it
Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez built much of his boldest attempt with those who produce food in mind. He says he spent six months at home, in front of the computer, without knowing how to code, and that out of that came the foundation of the platform and the artificial intelligence of CEASA Bank, a financial platform for agribusiness.
The proposal is a niche artificial intelligence that puts those who produce, those who process, those who trade and those who buy in direct connection, at the wholesale food markets, where food changes hands every day and where many people are still outside the financial system. When the banks refused to integrate the solution, he heard one more no and used it as ground.
Precautions
In the field, bad advice can cost a harvest: don't apply pesticides, animal medicine or fertilizer on the AI's recommendation without a prescription and a technician; check prices, weather and rules in official sources; don't send tools your CPF, rural environmental registry (CAR) data, contracts with names or bank passwords; ask your accountant and the union for the final word on taxes and credit; and remember that many AIs learned more about agriculture in other countries than about your region; your knowledge of the land is worth a lot.