Ag’s Digital Revolution: What’s Holding Us Back?
Data is undeniably a valuable asset. Yet, in the ag ecosystem, who’s seeing the value from it?
A recent article on PrecisionAg.com highlights how growers aren’t seeing value from data since, “The yield map book usually serves as a coaster more than a decision tool.” It’s 2018 and we’re still hearing stories of how growers have thumb drives full of yield data sitting on their shelves — or, at best, visualized on maps.
The notion of data as a valuable asset has led to emotions of fear and distrust when it comes to sharing that information — both among the grower and agtech communities. But here’s the reality: the idea of data possessing intrinsic value is precisely what’s holding back ag’s digital revolution.
Overcoming Ag Obstacles to Unlock Data’s True Value
What’s truly valuable about data? The insights that can be gained from it. As an industry, we need to stop thinking that data in and of itself is valuable since its raw form isn’t solving larger ag problems. In fact, the boots-on-the-ground approach used by forward-thinking companies is based on the very principle that subject matter experts are needed to gather, interpret, and provide insights off of data.
The situation is complicated by the lack of trust that’s prevalent in our industry when it comes to agtech companies — many of which want to own the data, charge per data transaction, and use key learnings from that data to build and market new products back to growers.
In order to harvest insights from data using this approach, agtech companies must ingest and cleanse the data, secure dozens of APIs from different sources, store the data in their own format, and then tackle machine learning and data science to derive actual value. Meanwhile, growers who want to leverage all of the data being generated about their fields must do the same, contacting several different companies just to extract their data.
What our industry needs is a more viable solution for ingesting, cleansing, standardizing, securing, and returning meaningful intelligence from any ag data at large scale. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the key to solving this challenge.
Industrial AI is Paying Dividends for First Movers
At Uptake, we believe the winning formula is for purpose-built software companies to create industrial AI software, and for industrial companies to deploy and leverage that software to make their businesses more productive, reliable, safe, and secure.
And there are competitive advantages for those who act first. According to McKinsey, “Digital means that strategies developed solely in the context of a company’s industry are likely to face severe challenges. Traditional approaches such as tracking rivals’ moves closely and using that knowledge to fine-tune overall direction or optimize value chains are increasingly perilous.” Here’s how McKinsey visualizes the obstacles and opportunities presented by digital journeys:
Where is ag on the climber journey? Many may say that companies are failing to respond to the current digital challenge. It’s a potential reason why many larger ag companies are buying startups in an attempt to solve a particular digital challenge. Yet, when it comes to true partnerships, many continue to choose to conquer the agtech digital landscape alone.
From agtech companies to growers, our industry needs to embrace digitization by remaining focused, realizing that help needs to come from the outside and taking quick action. This is what’ll sustain the next phase of the ag data revolution.
We cannot keep pursuing digital strategies from solely within the ag silo — if we do, we’ll face the fate of plummeting growth rates. The same goes for growers who have yet to start their own digital strategies. Agtech companies and growers must work together closely to address larger issues by identifying and solving critical problems that’ll move the needle from a productivity standpoint.