Agronomy class with real AI Agro station data

Opening class of the second semester of 2026 for Agronomy students at Uniube (Uberaba, Brazil), structured around eleven segments on cost pressure in agriculture. The class opens with market data: urea rose from about US$472/t to over US$850/t in two months (April 2026), with the World Bank's fertilizer index at its highest level since October 2022, driven by a natural-gas shock (80–90% of ammonia's cost) and the Strait of Hormuz.

Other segments covered in class: Brazil imports about 93% of the fertilizer it uses; U.S. soybean and corn are in their fourth consecutive year of per-acre losses; Brazilian rural delinquency is at its highest since 2011; AI adoption in agriculture is only 1.4%, the lowest of any sector of the economy; and rising coffee consumption in Asia has already produced a signed contract with Brazil, with the supply chain multiplying the product's value by 97 times.

The class closes by tying these eleven segments to one conclusion: agriculture's rising cost makes field measurement (soil and weather sensors) increasingly necessary to sustain margin, presenting the AI Agro station already operating at Uniube as a practical example of that data layer.