Feeding the World with Precision
In this particular article it speaks about how agriculture is making their businesses more efficient by the new use of data analytics. The new use of data analytics helps to make agriculture business more cost effective and profitable for the industry. The article touches upon some technological advancements as well that has helped to make the agriculture business more effective.
With the agricultural business struggling even before the COVID-19 pandemic farmers are using new data analytics to help them farm more efficiently. The practice of using key inputs such as soil or weather for example, to then gather this data to make more accurate predictions is amazing. With all of the data that is being collected it can help farmers to farm more effectively and gives them a better chance at having a profitable business. Not only does it make it more profitable for them it also helps with the supply chain overall. The use of data analytics in agriculture is like a river flowing downhill and it will go down the chain to benefit all. With all the data that can be collected in today’s technological age I think that the use of data analytics is a vital source to keep agriculture efficient especially now with the pandemic. Not only does the use of data analytics help farming but it can help to prevent food wastage as well. The amount of food that is wasted away every year is mind blowing and the use of the data collected goes into making more sustainable storage of food. With the use of the data to help drive farmers towards better storage it can have a huge impact of food wastage across the globe. This to me is a big plus with the use of data analytics in agriculture as less food wasted through better food storage can help to lower the amount suffering from starvation. Another great technological advancement that the article touched upon was the use of feed additives. With the use of these feed additives it helped to reduce methane emissions as well as increase feed conversion. With the new feed additives it helps not only the farmers save money on feed but helping the environment as well. With less methane emissions put into the air it helps to stop more greenhouse gases from burning a hole in our atmosphere. I think that the use of feed additives should be used in every farm as it will help keep our planet cleaner as well as help farmers with costs. With new technology and data analytics the future is bright for agriculture and data analytics is the next step for the industry. Overall I think that the new use of data analytics will help to strengthen the agricultural business as well as the global supply chain.
Brendan, I found your topic to be incredibly interesting, and decided to do some research into which types of solutions are currently out there for agriculture. My research was focused on IBM only, but I am certain that they are not the only big tech company assisting with agriculture challenges. IBM actually has an entire practice and research team working on solving the greatest problems in the business of agriculture. According to IBM’s public-facing website, transformations in agriculture have been initiated as a result of higher demand for good quality, healthy food, as well as the need for sustainability. However, they state that farmers have been steering away from digital transformation because of obstacles such as the highly manual and time-consuming process of entering the collected data, and in many cases not having the level of internet access necessary to carry out these technical processes. This is causing vast amounts of farming data to go unused. IBM helps famers to combat these inhibitors by using AI, combined with Internet of Things (IoT) data, and relying their many technical and research experts to carry out the work. This way, the farmers don’t have to deal with manual processes or worry about having internet access. IBM will simply do the work and provide their findings. The IBM solution of AI with IoT data and intellectual capital is inexpensive and customizable, making it attractive to many in the agriculture field.
ReplyDeleteThrough predictive analytics, IBM is helping farmers make better decisions, stay transparent, improve time to value, drive down costs, increase performance, reduce risk, and build more effective strategies. As you mentioned, this benefits the entire supply chain, all the way up to the corporate business level. Some of the more specific areas where IBM is improving agriculture are in the expansion of crop yields, improvement of crop protection, and optimization of seasonal trading. Watson AI provides alerts on levels of crop stress and diseases for reduced risk, comparisons of soil conditions with weather data for smarter irrigation, planting, and harvesting decisions, and guidance for when it is best to trade crops, depending on weather forecasts. IBM also uses weather APIs to improve sustainability for farmers and large businesses, with their Weather Operations Center applications.
Some clients of IBM’s that are currently benefitting from their agriculture solutions include the Agricultural Bank of China, Belgium Federal Public Service, USDA, and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, to name just a few.
Brendan, I learned a lot from reading this article and your analysis. I really enjoyed reading this because I had never believed that data analytics would be able to help the agriculture in this country. Furthermore, it is perfect timing like you said because the agriculture industry had been struggling before the pandemic. Prior to reading this I thought data would help with more technology based things, but I like how the agriculture is starting to use data to their advantage now.
ReplyDeleteThis article sticks out to me because it touches another field in this world and it would be beneficial for both parties. The data would help the farmers with planning, profit, and saving. The analysis that an be done on the weather can help farmers with determining the prime times to farm. With this being said this saves them from wasting food and materials. On the other side, the consumers will get the fresh food that they are craving. The data analysis on agriculture will largely benefit everyone but the farmers will need help from a technological standpoint because it is a mass amount of data.
Through the data collected on the entire agriculture industry there are now such things as "food additives." After researching what a feed additive is I learned that it is an extra nutrient that acts like vitamins and nutrients for them. This article and your analysis do a great job explaining how data can improve agriculture. Hopefully, the farmers try this and it will help them with farming. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this and I hope people read and listen to this.
Hi Brendan, I really enjoyed the article you discussed and your analysis of it. I think these is a place for data analytics in any industry, especially the food industry. Data analytics helps control and monitor the agricultural business so that it can be the most effective as well as profitable. The COVID pandemic hit a lot of industries hard, especially the agricultural business. This was not a business that I was particularly aware of, but it makes sense that they were. The example of dairy farmers having extra milk because schools were not renewing their contracts was able to reinforce how much our day to day lives impact different industries. Food is such a valuable resource that should not have to be put to waste, and data analytics helps control and prevent this.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the analogy you used about having data analytics in farming is like a river flowing downhill. I thought was really accurate because having data helps farmers support the processes they are already doing. It helps agricultural optimization to make predictions about soil, seeds, fertilizer and weather, all factors that have the ability to widely affect change in the agricultural system. For example, there is a global positioning technology that allow farmers to know where crops perform best. Knowing this information is vital because it allows farmers to know where to plant their crops as well as give them a chance to see what factors are contributing to the plants success and try to replicate them in other areas to see improved production. The pandemic was able to showcase how much food can be put to waste, so having these helpful tools can ensure farmers are getting the most yield for their efforts.
Furthermore, food shortage is a major issue worldwide. The article mentions 2 billion of the world population struggles with finding food. It makes the facts about wasting food even more serious because it shows that resources aren’t being used efficiently. Like you mentioned, data analytics has a major opportunity with their information to allow for better food storage so food can be used efficiently so materials are not wasted.
The use of data analytics can only help agricultural production. I believe it allows for more information to be known about the industry so that better decisions can be made. It is also more cost and material effective because it is putting the resources to good use. I really enjoyed this article because it allowed me to think of how technology and data analytics are able to help a variety of industries and aim to solve major world issues.
Brendan, I found your article about farmers becoming more efficient by incorporating data into their business very interesting. With a business as unpredictable as farming due to factors like weather, soil conditions, demand for products, among many other varying factors. Data is making all businesses more efficient in every industry and so I thought it was interesting that you decided to look at an article about the farming industry and how data is connected with that.
ReplyDeleteWhat really interested me was the idea about preventing food wastage through using more advanced analytics. Something that is definitely necessary is to have a better supply chain management and demand predictions so that we can greatly reduce that amount of food wasted. I was amazed to find out that there was thousands of gallons of milk dumped out last year alone. It was interesting to learn about the connection of the supply chains and how something like schools shutting down could have such a huge impact on the dairy industry by having less demand for packaged cartons of milk. I was also surprised to learn that this impacted the meat industry as well. I would have assumed that meant consumption stayed the same no matter where people were eating however this is clearly not the case and is a good example to why better data analytics is necessary in order to be more efficient in predicting consumer demands as to be less wasteful. Something I also didn’t take into account was the interconnectedness and length of some of the supply chains necessary to bring food from the farm to the tables. The articles talk about growers of the food, farmers, needed to respond the demand from the processors of food who then have to respond to the retailers of food. One part that I find interest is the commodities markets affect in all of this. I don’t know much about that specific market, however, I know it is very large and there is a lot of money to be made in the buying and selling of futures options on farm goods like wheat, corn, soybeans, among other things. I was amazed at just how much technology goes into farm these days and how advanced they have become. The world is rapidly advancing and agriculture along with it. This article highlights the possible benefits from having greater transparency in supply chains and what that can mean for a reduction in food waste. Overall I think this highlights a trend that I have noticed from many of the articles that I have read on this blog and that is the number of benefits that arise from increasing date usage through supply chain management and how that can benefits the world specifically through this article methane reduction and less food wasted.