Business Catalysts

By Shane Thomas,
Founder, Upstream Ag Insights

In today’s rapidly evolving agricultural landscape, agribusinesses and farmers are faced with a multitude of challenges. From unpredictable supply chains and weather uncertainty to fluctuating market demands and labor constraints, the need for systems that deliver data-driven insights has never been more critical. Fortunately, a new wave of technologies is poised to transform the industry, offering innovative solutions to age-old problems.

The Industry has traditionally only had access to Inflexible enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, siloed telematics data from equipment, field sensor data, or information left stranded on pen or paper. This leads to poorer decisions, missed opportunities to enhance relationships or yields, missed access to carbon credits, and ultimately, inferior outcomes throughout the agrifood value chain.

For example, there is an immense need for more agile demand signals throughout the supply chain. In Q2 and Q3 2023, every major crop protection manufacturer missed their sales expectations by 3% to upwards of 30%, in part because they lacked the digital infrastructure to understand the inventory levels and demand disconnect throughout the supply chain, something companies are working to help enable.

Crucial digital infrastructure can deliver superior outcomes to agribusinesses through better information for individuals, more efficient staff, better communication between farmers and their trusted advisors, and more convenience for farmers in paying invoices, purchasing products, or finding the right information they need.

The relevance of this software is just getting started; Microsoft and Apple made people’s lives inconvenient until they agreed on a standard for interoperability. That same need is playing out in agribusiness: interconnection between farm management software, ERPs, IoT devices, embedded insurance, and financing, along with upstream and downstream connectivity, are making the functionality higher in utility and convenience.

Today, the challenges have consistently been interoperability, but they also include implementation issues. There has not been concrete alignment between service provider and user (agribusiness professional or farmer) leading to inconsistent expectations, unfounded demands, and poor experiences with the products and services, which means lower adoption and lower value derived.

The good news is that service providers have learned many lessons over the past decade, and agribusinesses and farmers have gained clarity in what they are looking for from products, including ease of use, integration capabilities and strong customer support.

As we look out over the next three to five years, it becomes apparent that we will see companies work to integrate numerous tools in their offerings, including:

1. Increased interoperability across platforms, such as from ERP to System of Action to Farm Management software.
2. Increase integration of embedded systems to improve the utility at every login, such as finance offerings integrated within farmer applications. 
3. Downstream connectivity to ensure that field level and tractor level data can be not only accessed but also seamlessly analyzed for decision support or sent downstream to enable farmer participation in sustainability programs, including verification. 

These new integrations and initiatives will catalyze the agribusiness industry in the next five years, providing a platform to drive not only improved outcomes for farmers and agribusinesses but also environmental outcomes and improved food quality for consumers.   •