Located at “Embrapa Instrumentation” Embrapa unit, municipality of São Carlos, state of São Paulo, Brazil, the National Laboratory of Agri-Photonics (LANAF) was created in 2021 to strengthen the area of photonics applied to agriculture, environment, and agribusiness. It is one of the 11 National System of Photonic Laboratories from the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Sisfóton-MCTI).

It was designed to act in the entire food production chain, from the analysis of inputs, agricultural activity, environmental sustainability, industrialization, and/or marketing, to the delivery to consumers; contributing to Brazilian food safety and food security, seeking increasing consumer confidence and the opening of new international markets.

Organized in the multi-user laboratory model, it brings together a multidisciplinary team with professionals from Embrapa Research Centers, university partners, and the private sector to develop methods, equipment, and sensors.

They use photonic systems and spectroscopic techniques, such as nuclear magnetic resonance, infrared, LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy), fluorescence, and imaging techniques, for the development of systems to be used both in the laboratories such as in the field, like aerial images, robots with optical systems embedded, and sensors for water quality.

Access here videos on Agri-Photonics

Goals

• Strengthen the area of ​​photonics applied to agriculture, environment and agribusiness;

• Create a national network with structure of equipment and personnel that favors the development of new technologies based on photonics applied to agriculture;

• Train professionals who can deal with multidisciplinarity necessary to work in Agri-Photonics;

• Facilitate dialogue between different sectors of agribusiness application, an area of ​​fundamental importance for the Brazilian economy, in the form of development and research partnerships;

• Disseminate the potential of Photonics for this area among users from universities and research institutes, who will be able to use the infrastructure for their courses and research, getting in touch with the needs of the sector;

• Bring the private sector closer to researchers to discuss problem solving;

• Work on projects with companies and startups along the lines of open innovation; encourage the creation of laboratory spin-offs;

• Monitor licensed products to help them enter the market and monitor their impact on the productive sector.

Research lines

• Quality of Inputs

• Monitoring, environmental remediation, and soil carbon sequestration

• Mapping of agricultural areas and precision agriculture

• Post-harvest

• Agribusiness

• For more details, click here.

Usage Rules

Click here to access the laboratory usage rules. If you have any questions, please contact us by the Email cnpdia.lanaf@embrapa.br

New equipment

With the support of FAPESP, a CHN 828 equipment was acquired, which has a Management Plan.

      Photo: Illustrative image - Leco

Scheduling

If you want to use some of the structures of the National Laboratory of Agri-Photonics, access LabGeSis here to schedule an appointment.

Contacts

Technician:

Débora Marcondes Bastos Pereira Milori (coordinator): + 55 16 2107-2915

Ladislau Martin Neto (vice coordinator): + 55 16 2107-2866

Administrative sector:

Suzane Bertoni Fernandes: + 55 16 2107-2925

Communication sector:

Edilson Pepino Fragalle: + 55 16 2107-2807

Email: cnpdia.lanaf@embrapa.br

Strategic committee

President - Silvio Crestana (Embrapa Instrumentation)

Alexandre Berndt (Embrapa Southeast Livestock)

Silvia Massruhá (Embrapa Digital Agriculture)

Álvaro Sales (Mato Grosso Institute of Cotton)

Antonio Maciel Neto (NTAgro)

Ivair Gontijo (Guest Scientist - USA)

Teresa Vendramini (Brazilian Rural Society)

Technical committee

Chairman

No records were found.

Responsible Technician

No records were found.

Executive Secretary

No records were found.

Members

No records were found.

Laboratories, sectors and main equipment

  • Laboratory of Scanning Electron Microscopy

    It is a technique that uses an electron beam to scan the surface of samples, generating high-definition images – which can reach the nanometer scale – and providing information on the morphology and chemical composition of the material under analysis.

    Field Emission Scanning Microscope model JSM 6701F – JEOL

    Scanning Microscope model JSM 6510 - JEOL

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  • Laboratory of Optics and Photonics

    It is the core of LANAF, which performs the optical characterization of materials such as molecular absorption, fluorescence analysis, and Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, and the development of equipment to meet the demands of Brazilian agriculture.

    DP-LIBS system with infrared laser (1064 nm), green laser (532 nm), and UV laser (266 nm) in different geometries and laser combinations. The DP-LIBS system can also operate with the vacuum chamber in all the configurations mentioned above.

    Laser-induced fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy systems

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  • Laboratory of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

    It is a technique involving the interaction between electromagnetic waves (radiofrequency region) and atomic nuclei submitted to a strong magnetic field (RMN). Through RMN spectroscopy, it is possible to obtain detailed information about molecules' structure, dynamics, reaction state, and chemical environment.

    Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer 400MHz

    Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer 600MHz

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  • Laboratory of Chromatography

    This is a technique that consists of qualitative and quantitative analyses to identify substances with the separation of mixtures using properties such as solubility, chemical affinity, size and mass of substances

    Perkin Elmer Elemental Analyzer (CHN/CHNS)  

    Thermo Scientific Modular gas chromatograph, model TRACE GC 1310

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  • Laboratory of Atomic Absorption

    It is an analytic technique to determine the presence of metal ions in a solution quantitatively; this determination is based on the ability of the electrons in these ions to absorb energy when excited by a source, which can be a flame or an oven.

    Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer

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  • Laboratory of Nuclear Techniques

    Set of techniques that use interactions between X and Gamma rays with matter to obtain images from solid samples (tomography) and information about their chemical structure and physicochemical characteristics.

    Particle Size Analyzer

    Sky Scan X-ray Microtomograph

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Partners