There’s a new cloud platform coming soon that will open a world of data insights for agri-industry players, including animal feed producers, food processors, farmers cooperatives, and commodity traders. Built on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud, the solution fuses agriculture datasets sourced from many providers and uses them to build artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) models, offering more accurate insights into current and future production down to the farm level. Used intelligently, the promised data modeling can be integrated into planning and production systems, offering greater visibility on the supply and quality of agricultural commodities. The new agri-cloud promises enormous opportunity for the whole agri-food ecosystem, where there are close links between growers and farmers, manufacturers and distributors. These interconnected players are finely tuned to changes in farm management and grower services, commodities markets, and supply chain complexities.
Supporting a platform approach
As any one of these segments adapts to take advantage of as-yet unknown opportunities, there will be a blurring of external and internal services. The ability to scale quickly through shared data platforms will be critical to future success in the sector. The agri-cloud will form a key plank for the Agri ecosystem, providing intelligence and predictive analytics for industry players connected to commodity production, transformation, and distribution.
Agri manufacturers will be able to adapt more quickly to changing growing environment and consumer demands, leading to improvements in product quality and reduced food waste and carbon emissions. Trade in commodities will become more transparent, with improved visibility of overall commodity and currency exposure.
About those connected cows and smart equipment
As for the connected cows and smart equipment? These are being used to collect data from farms, which don’t have access to power in the paddocks and face patchy internet. By attaching sensors to livestock and tapping the data already collected by major equipment suppliers, the Agri cloud can gather and store huge amounts of information. Other sources, such as drones and satellites, help flesh out a more detailed picture of farm conditions including pest and disease infestation, drainage and irrigation, and weed growth patterns. The data gathered supports AI models to predict future growing conditions, providing predictive insights into future yield quantities and quality.
The future is now
Connectivity coverage is increasing almost everywhere. By 2030, advanced connectivity infrastructure of some type is expected to cover roughly 80 percent of the world’s rural areas (McKinsey), enabling new capabilities in agriculture. Low-power networks and cheaper sensors will see IoT scale up, enabling precision irrigation of field crops, monitoring of large herds of livestock, and tracking of the use and performance of remote buildings and large fleets of machinery.
What next
The agri-cloud is the culmination of years of research work and contributions from more than a dozen agriculture majors from around the world. It’s in public preview now and we’re excited about the opportunities it will offer to agri-businesses when it launches. Connect with one of our agri-industry experts to learn more: Email: info@sonata-software.com