AgAir Update has published articles on several women ag-pilots. Regardless of the job’s demands, women fit very well in the cockpit of an ag-plane. This edition of AgAir Update presents a summary of these special women and their careers.
Possibly the most well-known of active female ag-pilots is Juliana. AgAir Update readers know her through her column, “Volo per Veritas” (Fly for the Truth), where she writes about her experiences flying ag, not only as a female pilot but how the industry affects all ag-pilots.
She was a pilot for the Brazilian GOL airlines and an aviation cargo company. With an intense desire to fly an ag-plane, she attended and graduated from CAVAG (Brazilian ag-pilot school) in 2013. Afterward, she found a seat flying an Ipanema. But, Juliana did not stop expanding her career as an ag-pilot.
Juliana met an American ag-pilot, Joe Coppick, who had read her column in AgAir Update. It was only a matter of time before the two were married. What followed was Juliana coming to America to fly ag. In a short time, she found seats in different parts of the U.S. that over time allowed her to fly the turbine Thrush 510G, 510P, 510GR, 660P, Air Tractor AT-402B and AT-502B. She also has logged time in the Pawnee, Ipanema and Ag-Truck.
Juliana’s multi-faceted experiences in aviation make her a good example of what women can achieve flying ag. She’s flown ag for eight years of which six were in Brazil and two in the U.S. In addition to professional fulfillment, another fact that makes her very happy is personal fulfillment as a mother and as a wife. The marriage to an experienced ag pilot could not be more perfect, after all, they can talk about agricultural aviation, either at the airport or during dinner.
Is it possible for someone to go from zero time to ag-time to ag-operator in less than a year? Ask Kathryn “KayDee” Mitchell! It took her less than a year to not only become an ag-pilot, but also an ag-operator with two turbine-powered ag-planes at the age of 21.
Like so many young people in college, KayDee was unsure about what she really wanted to do in life. Having grown up on a large cotton farm, KayDee was studying agri-business and knew she wanted a career in ag.
During a casual conversation with her Uncle Gary, a 20,000+ acres farmer of soybeans and cotton, he mentioned to KayDee that he needed an airplane that could handle all of his acres. With her interest peaked, KayDee volunteered. The irony, however, is that KayDee had never been in an airplane.
After extensive training at a Georgia ag-pilot school, Thrush Aircraft’s training facility and close mentoring, KayDee completed her first season in 2019 flying the 510P Thrush. Wisely, she had partnered with Dow Croom, who flew the new 510G and mentored KayDee every step of the way.
Joelize, known as “Jo”, started her flying career in 2007 at the Carazinho Aero Club in Rio Grande do Sul Brazil. Here, she earned her Private Pilot’s license. Like so many pilots starting out, Jo worked at a Mato Grosso airport cleaning aircraft, pumping fuel and any other duties that would help her pay for the hours needed to earn her Commercial Pilot’s license.
“I came from a farming family. At first, when I was flying over the huge fields of Goias, I was afraid; not of the airplane, but of the huge responsibility of doing a good job. I worked on it and now have great satisfaction when pests have been eliminated, the crop is protected and the farmer is pleased.” Jo is flying her eighth season and is a partner-owner of Agrofly in Carazinho, Rio Grande do Sul.
When it comes to aviation, it always helps if a parent is your aviation mentor. Canadian ag-pilot Laura Lawrence’s father flew in the Royal Canadian Air Force as a flight instructor in the PC-9. He was a pilot for the Canadian Snowbirds Air Demonstration Squadron. He later became a captain for West Jet. While Laura was growing up, she often flew “right seat” with him.
Laura got her chance at an aviation career by working at a local ag operator's airport on the ground crew while earning her Commercial Pilot’s license and later flying a C-172 for aerial photography work. She decided to become an ag-pilot and attended Battleford’s Airspray school for her training. She started her first season in a C-188 Ag Wagon in 2017. In 2018, she flew the AT-401 and now has three seasons completed.
Laura agrees something that is very common for women flying ag is: Growers arrive at the airstrip and ask her, "Where is the pilot?" And, she replies, "I’m the pilot.” Growers feel a little embarrassed and surprised. They are not used to seeing a woman flying a spray plane. It's only a matter of time and the surprised faces are replaced with a more natural look, “Hi aviatrix! Are you the pilot spraying my field today?”
Laura Lima is 30 years old, graduating from CAVAG agricultural aviation school, Aero Agricola Santos Dumont in Rio Grande do Sul in 2012. During her training as a private pilot, she had the desire to fly ag. She had 800 hours that including working as a flight instructor before she started her ag training. Today, she has completed seven seasons in several Brazilian states.
Laura considers two things to be major accomplishments since becoming an ag pilot. The first was to learn to fly in the hilly region of Ribeira Valley treating bananas. She flew bananas for two years and says the flying requires a lot of situational awareness and skill because of the hills.
Laura’s second major accomplishment in her seven-season ag-pilot career is flying the Air Tractor 502 XP. “It is a wonderful aircraft with power to spare, in addition to a lot of comfort and safety factors; a dream of almost every agricultural pilot. Laura believes she is fulfilled with her agricultural aviation dreams but is always acquiring more and more experience, performing her role as an ag-pilot better every day with more promptness and professionalism.
It is good to come from an aviation family. It is good when your spouse is an ag-pilot, too. However, when a woman grows up as a third-generation pilot and marries an ag-pilot, it becomes the perfect combination for being a female ag-pilot. Such was the case with Emily Daniel after marrying her F-16 / ag-pilot, Austin Daniel.
Emily started flying at 14 with her father, who is a retired American Airlines pilot. Several years later, she met her future husband, Austin, at the Flying W Airport in New Jersey. The Daniel family-owned Wings Aerial Applicators and the Flying W Airport. It wasn’t long after that positively fateful weekend that Austin and Emily married.
Maria Aparecida dos Santos was born in Itiquira, a city in the interior of Mato Grosso. She is proud of her state’s wealth and large number of agribusinesses.
In 2006, she started her life in aviation with all the difficulties to pay for the hours. Then she did the private pilot course as it was not possible to do all the portfolios at once. So she went to live in the hangar to complete these other portfolios.
Maria flew executive aviation for a few years, then moved to Campinas in search of opportunities with airlines, but agricultural aviation kept drawing her to it. In 2011, she completed her first season as an ag-pilot.
Maria says that the greatest joy for her is the participation of women in agriculture, feeding the world and believing in their potential in all areas, especially in agribusiness. Furthermore, she says agricultural aviation was one of the best career choices she made within aviation. Like Juliana Coppick, she is married to an agricultural pilot as well.
Captain Marie Joyce B. Gascon recently became the first Filipino spray pilot. Captain Gascon, a registered nurse, wanted to pursue her love of aviation. She attended a flight school near Davao City, which is in the southern Philippines. She wanted an aviation career that suited her lifestyle and that turned out to be ag-aviation.
Training under Captain Domenico Rafael C. Venuti, the chief pilot of Davao Aerowurkz Corporation (DAC), she earned her Ag-Cat G164 rating in a dual-cockpit Ag-Cat with a P&W R-985 engine. She now flies Ag-Cats for DAC. She is completing her first year flying ag.
Established in 2007, DAC has a fleet of 15 aircraft. The company is primarily engaged in providing agricultural aerial spraying services in Mindanao. The primary crop treated is bananas.
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The scientists observed that wheat absorbed carbon dioxide during the production cycle
neutralizing emissions from fallow periods
The research included the installation of a flux tower in a grain field in Carazinho
a town in the northern portion of Rio Grande do Sul state
This equipment has been used by UFSM to assess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since the 1990s
The goal was to assess the differences between carbon emission and retention (balance) in a wheat-soybean production system by quantifying the CO2 flows in a commercial farm
the flux tower captured information to identify the carbon balance at each stage of the production system throughout the year
The study involved ten professionals from different segments
mathematicians and computer science professionals
although the equipment has a high acquisition cost (up to USD 180,000)
it provides a quick response on the gas flows in the system and generates a solid database in just one year
while other field techniques require long periods of time for a reliable response regarding the carbon balance in the environment.
“The method we used helped to establish parameters to inform a more efficient management of agricultural areas in terms of carbon retention and towards a more sustainable grain production system,” the researcher explains
noting that the information generated can reach the producer in practical conditions and help decision-making: “We translated a series of algorithms into plain language that would be accessible to farmers and technical assistance professionals
so that the knowledge can be adopted in the cultivation,” she adds
CO2 is indispensable for plants to perform photosynthesis
a process that promotes biomass growth and the formation of fruits or grains
the plant absorbs carbon and releases oxygen into the atmosphere
when they breathe more and there is no light to photosynthesize
carbon dioxide is part of the gases like methane and nitrous oxide
a barrier that prevents the cooling of the planet
agriculture is one of the main sources of greenhouse gases with around 27% of the country's emissions
according to recent surveys by the Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals System - SEEG
According to SEEG's data on such agricultural emissions
agriculture accounts for nearly all CO2 emissions; however, methane and nitrous oxide emissions from animal farming have a higher impact on the greenhouse effect
That is why they are converted into CO2 equivalent
they correspond to 69.3% of carbon emissions from agriculture and animal farming
land use change (deforestation and fires) affect natural carbon sinks and contribute to rising emissions and increasing the greenhouse effect
Farmer Paulo Vargas closely followed the experiment set up in his property
“Farmers have always been the ones who are the most interested in conserving the environment
precisely because they rely on natural resources to be able to work
Yet agriculture is usually called out as the villain
because it is an emitter of gases into the atmosphere
with the introduction of information generated by the research
showing what we already knew in practice: crop rotation and permanent soil cover bring more benefits than impacts on the environment”
The South of Brazil is the second largest grain producing region in the country
Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul) account for over 90% of wheat production and 30% of the domestic soybean production
Due to the appreciation of soybeans in the market
winter crops do not always compose the agricultural scenario
and many areas are left fallow in the local fall and winter months.
which rely on forage plants covering the soil during the fall and winter
it is possible to estimate a fallow area of over 6 million hectares in the region during the winter
when there are no cover crops or income-generating crops in the properties
In the subtropical environment of Southern Brazil
the lack of plant cover entails direct impacts on the soil
decrease in microbial activity and reduced fertility
The indirect impacts of fallow include a high incidence of weeds that increases production costs
Now the research findings also show the impacts of fallow on CO2 emissions into the atmosphere
The flux tower was installed in a grain cropland under a no-till system, with wheat sown in the winter and soybeans in the summer
The carbon balance was recorded at each stage of the production system
spring fallow (between the wheat harvest and soybean sowing)
and fall fallow (after the soybean harvest until the winter crop is sown)
In order to assess the CO2 balance
the study considered retention in the production system and emission into the atmosphere
discounting the carbon that was exported in the harvested grains
“In the assessment of the results, wheat has shown that it is able to remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits, that is, it is a 'decarbonizing' crop, which helps to reduce greenhouse gases like CO2 in the atmosphere,” states Genei Antonio Dalmago,another researcher at Embrapa
The carbon balance at each stage of grain production
after deducting the amount extracted by the grains at harvest
showed that wheat incorporated 5.31 grams (g) of CO2 per square meter (m²) per day into the system. Soybeans
while the two fallow periods together emitted 6.29 g
Wheat showed what researchers call a “negative carbon balance”
as the crop sequesters more carbon than it emits into the atmosphere
The wheat crop absorbed a total of 7,540 kg per hectare of CO2 from the atmosphere during the cycle
neutralizing emissions from fallow periods and ensuring a net supply of 1,850 kg/ha
which proved the possibility of wheat working as a “decarbonizing” crop in grain production in southern Brazil
The research findings also indicated the negative impacts of fallow on the grain production system with regard to CO2 emissions
it was able to emit 27% of all the carbon that wheat and soybeans accumulated in 11 months of cultivation
“It was possible to observe that the fallow in the production system emitted CO2
when the heat accelerates the decomposition of the crop remains
there were only 15 days of fallow in the spring
with the emission of 11.5 grams of CO2 per square meter a day
a very high amount that needs to be mitigated in the system,” Dalmago states.
winter cropping helps to balance the system
as soybeans absorb practically the same amount of CO2 that they emit
while wheat removes CO2 from the atmosphere
The researcher nevertheless warns that there are already alternatives to reduce or eliminate fallow between crops in the fall
plants for grain production or to produce forage
“This was an initial study that aimed to assess wheat's performance in fixing CO2 in a grain production system in southern Brazil
but I believe that other fall and winter crops and even cover crops could offer an even more negative carbon balance,” the researcher reports
Gouvêa adds that the project is looking for partnerships to expand the assessment and monitoring infrastructure
which can be placed in different grain production environments in the Brazilian South: “Our goal is to expand the study to encompass different production systems and combine new variables like carbon fixation in the soil
the influence of rainfall and other weather variables
higher levels of lignin in species and its relationship with plant decomposition
The potential impact of research on carbon fixation in grain production systems has repercussions both on the environmental and the economic spheres. The market for buying and selling carbon credits still lacks further regulation in the world, but since the Kyoto Protocol,which was signed in 1997
there has been economic value in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
Those who reduce their emissions can thus sell such carbon credits to the countries that emit the most
Since 2009, Brazil has had the National Policy on Climate Change (Law No
which represents the country's pledge to the United Nations to reduce GHG emissions
Different Brazilian companies and institutions are already negotiating carbon credits in the voluntary carbon market
According to Santi, Bill 528/2021
which regulates the Brazilian Emissions Reduction Market
establishes that 1 carbon credit is equivalent to 1 ton of CO2
Their hypothetical value is estimated at US$10 per carbon credit
noting that there is no consolidated market in the country yet
carbon credits would be linked to projects to reduce or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere
and such reduction (in tons) would be converted into bonds
Those bonds would be negotiated with governments
companies or individuals who have mandatory GHG emission reduction targets
Such negotiations would be defined by international laws and/or treaties.
“To enter the international carbon credit market
we first need the law that regulates this market in the country
and then we can start to quantify the CO2 balance in our agricultural production systems in different production regions
science has the fundamental role of competitively inserting Brazil in the carbon market ”
Learn more about Low carbon agriculture on Embrapa's website
Antunes (MTb 9.396/RS) Embrapa Wheat Press inquiries trigo.imprensa@embrapa.br
Translation: Mariana Medeiros (13044/DF) Superintendency of Communications
Further information on the topicCitizen Attention Service (SAC) www.embrapa.br/contact-us/sac/
Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation