From Field To Fork: Bringing Together Agronomy’s Disparate Systems

Farmers love technology, and they’ve been embracing it for decades.

Technologies like precision agriculture use sensors and geolocation to help farmers optimize soil quality, adjust moisture, and monitor crop health. Analyzing the data gathered from their fields helps them evaluate how their farm is performing, improve decision-making, foster greater traceability, enhance marketing, and boost the quality of their farm products.

This is not just some high-tech dreamscape—it’s a must. Unless they keep up with these tech trends, it will be difficult for farmers to meet growing demands and keep their farms at peak operation. In fact, the world needs to produce 70% more food in 2050 than it did in 2006 in order to feed the growing population of Earth—so farmers need all the high-tech help they can get.

The farming industry has made serious strides in getting connected. But all too often, they have accumulated a collection of disparate systems. To really reap the value of connected technologies, farmers need to connect all of their systems—from soil and crop sensors, to RFID technology to satellite imagery to agronomic applications (like seed, chemical, fertilizer).

Deriving insights from all of the agriculture ecosystem data will provide even more value to farmers in the form of increased productivity with seamless workflows. When their various systems can talk to each other and share data, growers will be able to answer questions like, How did all of the “as-applied” inputs impact “crop yield”? What’s the best ration mix to feed a particular livestock operation? Or what can we do to automate the output for irrigation? The right insights and recommendations can enable them to get the most of their operation.