Published on 08/19/2014 | Operations
The world population is expected to reach 9 billion in 2050 and, along with providing clean water, sustainable energy and accessible healthcare, feeding the world is one of humanity’s top global issues. However, availability of arable land diminishes and regulatory requirements increase, both forcing farmers to do “more with less” and produce higher yields using fewer chemicals distributed in very precise ways – this approach is called “Precision Farming”. In order to drive sustainability and profitability goals, farms more and more consolidate into mega-farms managed by farm managers and corporations, ultimately increasing the power and influence of the farmer within the entire value chain.
On the other hand there are the producers and suppliers of seeds, plant protectants and fertilizers who want to maximize their business with farmers and differentiate themselves from competition through innovative products and service offerings
So what’s the role of Big Data in this ecosystem? First and foremost farmers need to measure and understand the impact of a huge amount and variety of data which drive overall quality and yield of their fields. Among those are local weather data, GPS data, soil specifics, seed, fertilizer and crop protectant specifications and many more. Being able to leverage this data for running long and short term simulations in response to “events” like changed weather, market need or other parameters is indispensable for farmers in terms of maximizing their profits. From a regulatory perspective tracking and tracing products throughout the supply chain or Country of Origin labeling provides additional Big Data challenges.
Suppliers of seeds, plant protectants and fertilizers need to receive all this data, bring it into a cohesive model, and apply proprietary algorithms in order to provide best possible solutions and services to farmers.
Manufacturers of agricultural machinery are another essential part of the overall value chain. They not only need to ensure maximum uptime of their assets at lowest costs but also support mobile data collection (e.g. soil samples, moisture monitors and sensors, color of crops in the field, growing rate, weather damage, nutrient level, crop variety) and make this info available in real time for further processing within the value chain.
Besides farmers, agribusiness companies, suppliers and manufacturers of agricultural machinery, weather stations and laboratories, traders and industry partners and technology and solution providers are part of an increasingly complex ecosystem with a strong need to secure Big Data from a myriad of sources.
This calls for an independent, Big Data-enabled, trusted, and secure platform for all stakeholders in the agriculture supply network to deposit, share and exchange data for mutual benefit in support of the precision farming concept. Such platform should simplify and orchestrate farmers’ collaboration with seed producers, crop protection chemical suppliers, fertilizer companies, equipment manufacturers, commodity traders and data brokers with the ultimate goal to drive improved yields and sustainably feed the world’s growing population.
So what are your thoughts on precision farming and the role of Big Data?
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