Brazilian citrus farming faces several challenges, including the shortage of labor to harvest the fruit and the efficiency and performance of the harvesters’ work. The Harvest+ project, created by Fundecitrus, seeks to improve the harvest process through improvements in manual harvesting and promoting mechanized and semi-mechanized solutions.
One result achieved by the project is a 7% increase in the daily income of harvesters on four properties that are part of the project. For six months, Harvest+ teams, in partnership with property management, established strategies to increase productivity and carried out training with various field teams and their respective leaders. Efraim Albrecht, coordinator of the Harvest+ project, said the work began with the identification of possible causes of a decrease in yield.
“Then, work was carried out with 21 leaders to implement management practices in their harvesting teams,” Albrecht said.
According to Albrecht, process management is a strategic tool that, when well implemented, directly contributes to obtaining good results, promoting efficiency, quality and innovation within the orchard.
“One of the main benefits of process management is the ability to increase operational efficiency, which results in savings in time and resources,” he said. “Clear and well-defined processes reduce the occurrence of errors and rework; for example, allowing the team to work in a more focused manner.”
To quantify the effect of the harvesters’ work and the results, a comparison was made between a period with the implementation of management practices and a period without these practices.
“Analyses conducted on citrus properties demonstrated positive results with management, leadership and training practices,” said Marcella Freitas, the Harvest+ process specialist. “The next step of the project, now, is to continue expanding these practices to other field leaders, creating more fronts of action in the harvesting process.”
“Companies that have their processes well managed are able to react more quickly and effectively to new demands, whether technological, regulatory or market,” said Fundecitrus agronomist and project supervisor Guilherme Rodriguez.
The Harvest+ team seeks partnerships with companies, research institutes, startups and universities in Brazil and abroad, to develop technologies that meet the demands of Brazilian orchards. To date, the work has been carried out in seven companies, totaling more than 50 hours of training and 220 participants.
Source: Fundecitrus
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