Business of Agriculture continues to be dynamic as always; the challenge of
feeding a growing world population, coupled with managing global supply
chain, geopolitics and of course trying to cope with the biggest challenge of
them all: Mother Nature's upper hand.
The reality is that most small hold farmers, especially those in developing nations have very little access to tools and technologies that enable “modern agriculture” practices. There again, lack of modern technology may be an opportunity in disguise. Case in point, the wireless telecommunication revolution in India that helped the country beleaguered by lack of traditional telephone lines leapfrog directly to modern cellphone age. Wonder if access to insights enabled by digital farming technology and tools - big-data enabler in the example above – do the same for the small farmer in rural India, or sub-Saharan Africa?
Just following Mother Nature’s mood swings requires enormous
data crunching, analytics, use of communication networks, satellites, drones and newer tools and technologies. And here I am just talking
of Information Technology and not the product “Technology” that enables the
agribusiness industry (pesticides, herbicides, genetic seeds, traits etc etc).
I came across an announcement yesterday by Monsanto that it
was acquiring a big-data technology firm, Climate Corporation, for
approximately $1.1 billion (link). I think it is a fascinating opportunity if done right, and if taken to
farmers around the globe. Of course, Monsanto is not alone in the quest to
integrate lego blocks of agribiz puzzle together; Another large agbiz firm, Syngenta* recently announced “The Good Growth Plan”
The reality is that most small hold farmers, especially those in developing nations have very little access to tools and technologies that enable “modern agriculture” practices. There again, lack of modern technology may be an opportunity in disguise. Case in point, the wireless telecommunication revolution in India that helped the country beleaguered by lack of traditional telephone lines leapfrog directly to modern cellphone age. Wonder if access to insights enabled by digital farming technology and tools - big-data enabler in the example above – do the same for the small farmer in rural India, or sub-Saharan Africa?
*Opinions on this blog are mine alone and not that of my
employer
Links:
- Image mashup from : "India still out of the Net" BusinessLine, India strives to become 'drought proof' (The Guardian), India to Triple Number of Farmers Using Mobile Phones to Get Weather and Market Data (CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change)
- Monsanto's Billion-Dollar Bet Brings Big Data to the Farm - Businessweek
- Why Big Ag Likes Big Data -New York Times (blog)
- Musing on Agribusiness, Modern Agriculture and Enterprise Architecture (my earlier blog post)
No comments:
Post a Comment