How a Brazilian Soybean Farmer Uses a Bell 505 to Help Decrease Food Instability

“It is the rural producer who feeds the world,” said Anderson Gorgen during an interview with Bell. “Our mission is to produce quality food as efficiently as possible, so that people can have access to healthier food at a lower cost. While this is our role in agriculture, it is a long journey from production to arriving on your table. Our Bell 505 helps us to make that possible.”

Deep in the state of Maranhão, a secluded area of northeast Brazil, lies Gorgen’s five family-operated farms. Known for its sizable farms and “precarious infrastructure”, as Gorgen describes, the lack of paved roads in this region makes it difficult for farmers to quickly access their land.

For years, Gorgen’s family has been involved in the agricultural business – from soybean production to launching several subsidies of their company ‘GEES’, such as GEES Agriculture, which focuses on selling agricultural equipment. With the expansion of his agribusiness and changing weather conditions in region, Gorgen notes that it became challenging for his team to efficiently monitor the crops while on the ground.

“Every farmer knows that the best way to identify sensitive areas in a crop is through aerial vision,” said Gorgen. In May 2022, he decided to purchase a Bell 505 to make it happen.

“When it comes to crop inspection, the Bell 505 has optimized our processes, as its panoramic view allows our agronomists to accurately identify specific regions that require pest treatment or fertilization. In this sense, the Bell 505 performs better than a drone, as it allows for real and close-up vision. Therefore, the Bell 505 has allowed us to achieve greater production efficiency,” explained Gorgen.

With the added capabilities of the Bell 505, he also has the flexibility to fly with his prospective customers looking to purchase the company’s agricultural equipment, such as tractors and harvesters, providing an optimized field visit experience.

“Agriculture is in our DNA, as our family has been involved in this activity for generations. We are passionate about agribusiness because we are contributing to ensuring people's food security. Because the Bell 505 has made our logistics more efficient, our company has increased its revenue considerably – allowing for more farmers to have the tools to cultivate their own crops and more people to have access to fresh food,” said Gorgen.

Known for its advanced performance across varying mission sets, the Bell 505 holds the added capability benefits of wide panoramic windows, an open cabin design, a Garmin G1000H NXi avionics suite and Synthetic Vision technology.