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Digitalisation of agri implies higher output & lower carbon footprint
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Wednesday, 20 June, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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The digitalisation of agriculture, including various technologies for precision farming, artificial intelligence (AI), robots and drones, holds the promise to make modern agriculture more efficient and sustainable.
This may be achieved by drastically increasing the amount of information available to make educated farming decisions on fertiliser and plant protection or by substituting human labour altogether.
These technologies will not only boost biomass production, but also livestock farming will improve its environmental footprint. Or, to put it in a nutshell: less input, more output and lower environmental footprint.
Less input, more output and lower environmental footprint – How precision farming and digitalisation revolutionise agriculture worldwide
The impact of the new technologies, such as robotics, drones and AI goes beyond what is seen in daily life and is already revolutionising our food production system.
Precision farming has shaken up a number of large companies to invest in the development of new solutions for future farming technologies.
Which companies are part of this new wave and what technical products are available on the market?
The major players of this field will come together and present their newest products at Revolution in Food and Biomass Production (REFAB) conference, slated to take place in Cologne, Germany, between October 1 and 2.
The digitalisation of food and biomass production is in full swing all over the globe, though at different paces and levels, equivalent to the extent of the farmers’ realities and needs.
Technology providers with the ambition to globally supply their products are, therefore, faced with the challenge to meet the farmers’ needs.
In addition, as in other applications of digitalisation, the question of data security and data ownership arises.
This affects not only the interests of the farmers, but also the economic interests of technology companies and countries.
At the upcoming REFAB conference, major players from the agricultural, chemical and IT sector will present their views and experiences on the digitisation of agriculture.
Contributors to the conference include Srinivasu Pappula, global head, digital farming initiatives, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (India); Egbert Schröer, worldwide managing director, process manufacturing and resources industry, Microsoft (the United States); Tobias Menne, head, digital farming, Bayer (Germany), Stefan Pelzer, director, innovation management, animal nutrition, Evonik Nutrition and Care (Germany), and Joachim Stiegemann, head, CES product management, CLAAS E-Systems (Germany).
With these contributions by globally operating companies, the conference will provide a balanced perspective on the state of play of precision farming technologies, their markets and how they meet the diverse needs of farmers.
TCS Digital Farming Initiatives developed a suite of flexible multi-pronged technologies, termed InteGra, combining the so-called five digital forces – social networks, mobility, analytics, Cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) to create market-smart and climate-smart farming enterprises, coined Progressive Rural Integrated Digital Enterprises (PRIDEs).
Stated Pappula, PRIDEs have been created across various states in India and have a transformative effect on the lives of small and marginal farmers moving them towards a future of economic prosperity and food security.
Schröer, as the lead of the teams responsible for empowering chemical and agrochemical companies and industries, said, “Digital agriculture is transforming how the world farms to feed the world population. Food safety, integrity and security are major issues.”
“Feeding the world in a sustainable manner has become core of Microsoft’s strategies and traditional agriculture companies are changing their business models leveraging technology and e-commerce capabilities to launch new value-added digital services for growers,” he added.
“Together with our great partners, we are committed to empower people and organisations to solve global environmental challenges by increasing access to AI tools and accelerating innovation,” Schröer said.
At the heart of precision farming solutions at Bayer Digital Farming are the Xarvio Field Manager, a digital solution for monitoring the health of agricultural fields via remote sensing, and Xarvio Scouting, an app for monitoring the health of crops via your smartphone, including their nutritional and infestations status.
Both products have only been introduced in 2017, and are currently available in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Poland and the Ukraine.
As already mentioned, precision farming does not only transform crop production but also animal husbandry. In an interesting example, researchers and developers at Evonik Nutrition and Care work on the so-called Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) for poultry.
The term stands for using digital technologies to employ knowledge and data in order to develop effective recommendations with verifiable benefits.
In this case, not only body temperature, nutrition and the climate in the barn are monitored and analysed, but also the communication within the flock.
Based on its analytical services for amino acids, Evonik already has many years of experience with digital business models in agriculture.
At CLAAS, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of agricultural machinery, the focus on precision farming solutions lies in data collection during field operations and its processing into cultivation decisions.
As examples, the application Crop Sensor allows to instantly adapt the application of fertilisers or growth regulators during field operations and the conductivity meter EM 38 collects information about the soil status, such as its heterogeneity, yield potential and composition during a field operation. Furthermore, CLAAS advocates manufacturer-independent data integration, using the prominent holistic farm management software 365FarmNet, a CLAAS subsidiary.
These, and more projects and prominent companies, will be present at the REFAB conference. Altogether, 50 speakers and 30 exhibitors will show the future of food and biomass production.
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