When Fully Enabled, Ag Technology Will Break the Cycle for Faster Results

By Kenneth Scott Zuckerberg,
Director of Global Research, CHS, Inc.

In Greek mythology, Zeus granted eternal punishment against a human king, Sisyphus, for several crimes, including a scheme to “cheat death.” The punishment was rather harsh: Sisyphus was forced to roll a boulder up a hill, only to have the boulder continuously roll down again, thus beginning an endless cycle of self-defeating hard labor.

Whether on the farm or within an agribusiness, passion and commitment drive us. While the industry continues to innovate, technology will never eliminate the know-how, hard work, sound decisions, and luck (sometimes a lot of luck!) necessary to be successful. And when things go bad, it’s much like being rolled over by a boulder. Worse yet, like Sisyphus, we must try again next season and the season after.

Now more than ever before, ag tech offers the opportunity to work smarter, more efficiently, and more successfully, with reduced volatility and variability.

Next-generation data-enabled tools go well beyond the traditional definitions of “precision ag” in that they offer an opportunity to help simplify the complicated processes of farming as well as each step along the agricultural supply chain.

Since 2016, Meister Media Worldwide’s VISION Conference has helped agribusiness leaders – like you – understand and drive the opportunities and potential impact of technical innovation for our industry. This year, VISION will focus on unlocking the value of innovation across the supply chain. To do so, we must first understand how to accelerate tech adoption in an increasingly risky and complicated world:

Five Things to Overcome to Accelerate Ag-Tech Adoption

1. Prove the technology generates a positive return on investment
2. Resolve data integrity and cyber-security issues
3. Increase performance despite imperfect rural infrastructure (i.e., connectivity over farm fields)
4.  Determine which technologies are compatible with each other
5. Encourage farmers to prioritize what tools can provide a 30% – 40% increase in productivity (and ignore everything else)
   Source: Kenneth Scott Zuckerberg and Raven Industries 

From the user perspective, change is hard, obviously. However, if the technology provider can address the real needs of the customer — providing tools that integrate easily with existing processes in a matter that increases certainty and reduces total production cost — then a successful business will be born. Otherwise, both the technologist and the farmer face the same Sisyphean punishment: doing the same arduous task over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

In the following sections of this Executive Primer, several industry practitioners and observers will offer their perspectives on the key drivers of innovation over the next three to five years.

At the VISION Conference, the goal is to come together with a shared understanding so we can effectively challenge norms and remove obstacles, thereby breaking the Sisyphean cycle of the past.  •