We Live in a Data-Driven World. Crop Management Is No Exception

Digital transformation, the process of updating existing business processes with modern, data-powered technologies, has hit full swing. 

Spurred by the decreasing cost and increasing effectiveness of digitalization, and of course, by the pandemic which limited many in-person functions for an extended period, most businesses today have made significant progress in their digital transformation. In fact, 97-percent of global IT directors told Software AG, an enterprise solutions firm, that they accelerated their digital transformation in response to COVID-19, nearly two thirds said they saw a “large amount of change.”

Yet, one industry has been slower to adapt to this paradigm shift occurring across industries: farming. That too is changing rapidly now. In the last decade, cheap and relatively simple-to-implement agricultural technologies have become widely available, including aerial photography platforms, real-time soil sensors, remote management tools, and machine learning systems that analyze agricultural data to glean vital guidance for growing better crops with fewer resources.

More Precision, Less Waste

The key to all these advancements are digitally-connected tools that enable agricultural processes that are substantially more precise than traditional farming methods. Instead of indiscriminately spraying entire fields with pesticides, aerial scanning and ground-based sensors update digital maps that tell farmers exactly where to focus their efforts, resulting in less contamination of the soil and groundwater — and reduced costs for the farm.

And that arrangement works for all the inputs that a growing farm operation relies on:

• Herbicides

• Pesticides

• Water

• Fertilizer

• Lime

• Gypsum

Precision technologies are powering a third wave in modern agriculture. The first wave was marked by the addition of mechanized equipment in the 1900s. The second wave began in the 1960s with the advent of genetically modified crops. The emergence of reliable and accessible digital technologies that allow farmers to measure, analyze, and optimize their crops on a real or near real-time basis represents just as monumental a shift.

The first era of digital crop management was made possible by imaging and sensing systems, including from agricultural drones and crop health indicators, that gave farmers access to the topographical mapping and soil data necessary for precise planting and smarter use of their resources. 

Today, those early advancements are finding even greater value thanks to machine learning systems fed on those data sources to extract actionable insights that inform more efficient crop management. The end result is less use of herbicides and pesticides, lower costs for premium agricultural products, more access to organic farming methods, and more effective use of farm lands.

By observing and measuring their farmlands with digital accuracy, farmers are able to respond to minor variations from within even a single growing field. Digitization of crop management also makes the process of tracking progress from season to season (and even from week to week) that much simpler so that the factors that affect the quantity and quality of the plants produced can be charted, including:

• Crop yields

• Terrain changes

• Organic matter content

• Moisture levels

• Nitrogen levels

• pH balance

• Mineral content

Optimizing Farming Output with Sensors, Drones, and Big Data 

One of the primary advantages of adopting digital crop management and precision farming methodologies has been more active use of a related agricultural advancement called variable rate technology (VRT), which allows farmers to add water, fertilizer, and other farm inputs at different rates in the same field.

Better yet, VRT powered by digital crop management means farmers can optimally distribute resources on an automated basis, without having to manually tend to each problem area. And real-time sensors in soil connected to wireless transmitters and networked together by an IoT (Internet of Things) framework reduce the need for on-site human supervision.

Drones have also become a major boon to precision farming. Formerly, agricultural operations that wanted to take advantage of aerial views of their land were forced to rely on satellite imagery which often lacked the detail they needed or on human-piloted flyovers which was time consuming, expensive, and not terribly good for the environment. Instead, low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that are computer-stabilized in flight so that they can be easily piloted by amateurs are being outfitted with a whole suite of sensing technologies that help farmers optimize their operations. 

Thanks to orthographic photography (also called orthophotos, aerial imagery that has been geometrically corrected so that the entire image is in uniform scale) and multispectral cameras that can accurately measure critical farm signals like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium levels, farmers can reduce redundant inputs, boost yields, and apply only the chemicals needed at the exact right time and place. 

Better for Balance Sheets and the Planet

The benefits of leveraging digital crop management extend beyond just products that farms produce to the broader ecosystem and the economic realities in which all farming operates. With precision, digitally-empowered farming, farmers are able to:

• Enhance the quality of their products

• Reduce their reliance on pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers

• Increase yields with less water

• Preserve the nutrients in their soil

• Decrease the environmental footprint of their farms

• Market the improved traceability and transparency of their output

• Make smarter and faster decisions that optimize the value of their land

• Compete more effectively in the marketplace

All those benefits add up. A study of farms funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that a precision agriculture approach resulted in 54-percent higher farm output.

All that said, data alone can’t do everything. Even with the most advanced machine learning platforms at their disposal and an abundance of data-vetted insights to guide them, the final responsibility for ensuring the success of a crop falls on the individual farmer. They have to decide when it makes economic sense to implement a change and to what extent they are committed to running an operation that is not just profitable but sustainable as well. 

The best outcome is one where digital crop management and precision farming is implemented in a manner that harmonizes those sometimes competing interests so that farmers can produce more and better crops with fewer resources and less impact on the planet.

With over 15,000 acres of farmland in Central Oregon currently being prepared for cultivation, GÜDPHORIA is ramping up production of a state-of-the-art hemp production, processing, and innovation center. 

Stay connected to learn more about developments that are reshaping the agricultural landscape and enabling safer, healthier, and more efficient hemp-based products — with benefits for both end users and the planet.