Background smart farming
Tech giant and chemical giant are working on smart farming
Satellites, drones, soil sensors, weather stations and karting on agricultural machines. All (affordable) technical aids that are within reach of the farmer. However, the translation of all that data into practical advice leaves much to be desired. This has also not gone unnoticed by the tech company Microsoft and chemical group Bayer. Both companies formalized a smart farming partnership last week.
Generating data is no longer a problem these days. Satellite maps that track many different parameters are available for free or at a relatively low cost. Soil moisture sensors and weather stations are no longer expensive, yield measurement on a combine or harvester is no longer an exception and GPS on the tractor has almost become the standard. Collecting data is therefore no problem for the average farm. But how can you make chocolate from everything that is thrown into that big data bin?
Tangle
The satellite data supplied by company A looks very different from the data from the soil moisture sensor of company B and also differs from the tractor GPS of brand C. In short, smart farming is still mainly a jumble of isolated data streams that cannot be exchanged or combined. are with each other. It is precisely the combination of that data that is necessary to discover connections and to arrive at broader insights, on which you, as a farmer, can make cultivation-technical and business economic decisions.
Several agtech startups have puzzled over how to combine all those different data streams. Processing that data takes a lot of time and money, so that the practical applications for the farmer - which is ultimately what it's all about - often fail. There have also been initiatives in which protocols are being rolled out to more or less standardize the data. However, getting all the frogs in the same wheelbarrow remains a challenge. Various machine manufacturers work with their own cloud services that can exchange data to a certain extent. Consider, for example, Claas Telematics or John Deere Operations Center, but the link to other systems remains a bottleneck. You must use the services of affiliated companies.
Linking and translating data
Microsoft and Bayer seem to be taking a slightly different approach, according to a statement from the companies. Microsoft provides the cloud service Azure Data Manager for Agriculture (ADMA). With that 'program' the users process and organize different datasets. The system can establish the link between the various data streams that feed the system. ADMA seems to use AI (artificial intelligence), IoT (internet of things) and Edge Computing (way of data storage) for this. According to the companies, by linking data from different sources, the possibilities for digitizing the agricultural sector are boosted.
But the data of that individual farmer alone is not much use. And that's where Bayer comes in. With AgPowered Services, the company offers possibilities and tools to translate the data in the ADMA platform into practical and timely insights about plant health, weather reports, growth monitoring and more. According to Bayer, the farmer can, for example, follow the development of diseases, pests and weeds in a crop, but also recognize patterns in growth and yield and make maps for precision fertilization and crop protection.
Through the chain
The initiative of Bayer and Microsoft will also be opened up to other parties. According to the companies, this is essential to close the gaps in the system. By bringing together the loose information, farmers can work cheaper and more efficiently and reduce their impact on the environment, according to Bayer and Microsoft. The system is not exclusively intended for farmers. Chain parties and ultimately the consumer can also use the system. This allows customers to make data-based choices in areas such as sustainability.
Jurphaas Lugtenburg
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