Better Farming February 2017

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Better Farming February 2017
FRONTIERS INAG
If you have soil issues, they might be apparent only at the
end of the season. We offer genetic fingerprints of soil,”
Wu says.
“We are not telling farmers how to farm. We are
figuring out what machine learning will do better, scaling
it and providing insights to farmers (who) get the value
back from all their hard work.”
Blue River Technology, another California company,
also emphasizes precision farming. Its “plant-by-plant”
diagnosis monitors for optimal growing conditions.
How are established farming companies responding to
the next generation of AI start-ups and entrepreneurs?
Case IH and New Holland, for example, unveiled proto-
types of autonomous field tractors in the fall. Farmers may
one day operate these tractors equipped with a range of
technologies such as LiDAR (laser-sensing) guidance.
Some of these “high-tech” applications in farming, such
as global positioning systems (GPS) or drone imagery, are
not shockingly new.
So what brings AI to the forefront now?
In 2015, nearly 500 ag-tech companies drew USD$4.6
billion in investment, double the amount from the
previous year, reports AgFunder, a U.S.-based equity
crowdfunding site that connects individual and institu-
tional investors with high-growth ag-tech and food
companies.
Amid the enthusiasm for these new information and
technology investments, farmers should keep in perspec-
tive that applications have different uses with particular
commodity types, locations and production models, and
need to integrate often disparate but growing ways of
information gathering. Farm management will require
thinking across database applications toward a unified
platform of the farm operation; mobile devices will
provide the user with access to ideally coherent, complete
data.
We can increasingly see data integration and informa-
tion sharing improve the benefits of AI. Farm Hack, which
is based in the United States, provides users with an open
source, online data platform to share “appropriate tech-
nology” innovations. Members manage and discuss
everything from water conservation and soil health to
greenhouses.
Farm Hack worked with the United States Environ-
mental Protection Agency to gather data across farming
systems to validate information that helps inform both
government policy and farmer decision-making.
In 2009, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations reported that by mid-century agricultural
production will need to rise significantly to meet demand.
The situation is further complicated because some in-
tensely farmed regions where crops such as rice and wheat
are produced have “yield plateaued.”
Bringing AI to agricultural innovation and addressing
the data gaps
These developments are on the radar of Ontario-based
farm organizations. At the interface of agriculture, crop
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