Digitization of agriculture and management consulting.

What's the
deal?
By Prabhu Shankar Lakshmanan

Feeding the future has a lot of challenges. Photo by Tanaphong Toochinda on Unsplash

“Are there not enough powerful technologies in the world already? If so, why
are people in some parts of the world suffer without food and others not?”,
my father asked during a conversation about my PhD. My father was a
farmer. He never knew how to read and write. The question made me explore
digital farming and big data application along with my research and business
interest.

Challenges for feeding the world

According to UN FAO and World Resource Institute, we need to produce
40% more food, within 20 years, in the same amount of available land.
Digitization, big data and artificial intelligence are key elements for Industry
4.0. Utilizing these elements in agriculture will bring another agri-revolution
and help us produce higher yield.

Developed countries have moved to utilize the advanced technologies in

agriculture (Pham and Stack, 2018 and Wolfert S et al. 2017). Unlike
developed countries, developing countries has higher number of smallholder
farming. And the demand for food is high in those countries as population is
high and growing. Other challenges are agro-climatic and crop diversity,
broken food system, infrastructure, job migration and skills. However,
developing countries, e.g. India, has underutilized agriculture resources and
looked up for fulfilling the growing world's need. Application of technology
for producing more food does not only eliminate hunger but bring economic
stability and self-reliance to those countries.

Application of technologies

A step by step analysis of each process in arable farming, as an example, can

give a clear understanding of value creation to various stakeholders in the
value chain. Digital services through big data analytics, smart farm
machinery and equipment such as IoT's, sensors, smartphone apps, GIS,
UAV's, etc., can help decision making in every following stages. Data
relevant to the below steps can be digitized and analyzed to give accurate
recommendations and used to eliminate wastage and produce more food at
many levels.

Crop selection

Selection of crop is based on regional agro-climatic conditions, market

requirement, financial availability, soil, water characteristics and availability,
crop, pest and disease history, labor intensity and yield.

Seed selection

Once the crop is selected, the farmer must select seeds that possess traits
relevant to the specific agro-climatic conditions, such as drought tolerance,
disease tolerance, yield and quality. At some cases, the need for seed
treatment prior to sowing is required. The seeds and treatment chemicals
should be pre-ordered or checked for timely arrival not to miss the season.

Land preparation

Land should be prepared based on crop type, soil types, irrigation methods,
planting and harvesting methods, availability of other resources like labor,
finance, machinery, etc., Soil analyzes can provide insights of needed
fertilizer or manuring. Biodiversity of soil should be nurtured for various
reasons including soil health and nutrient disperse.

Planting or sowing

Based on crop type seeds can be sowed or planted from nurseries.

Appropriate time of seeding or planting is important for homogeneous
yielding and delivery to the market. Availability of machinery, equipment
and working capital are crucial in this step.

Irrigation

Type of irrigation can be defined based on availability of water, crop type

and soil moisture content. Irrigation is a continuous process until harvesting.
Therefore, continuous monitoring system is required.

Weed management

Previous crop history is important in understanding weed management.

Moreover, regional analysis can provide kind of weeds are prevalent in the
area and controlling methods. Weed can be removed mechanically and
chemically. Removal of weed at the early stage is very beneficial. Weed’s
physiology can be useful for selecting weedicides.

Disease or pest management

Regional data about all the crops, previous outbreak of disease or pest,
vulnerability of the crops are relevant data to be stored and analyzed for
blocking the disease or pest development. Direct monitoring is very
important to avoid crop and yield loss. Image analysis are key tools for
managing pest or disease.
Nutrient management

Soil type, analyzes, crop nutrient requirement are relevant data which can
provide solutions such as type of fertilizers, nutrient contents to be used.

Yield management

Even flowering and fruiting is crucial for some crops to avoid multiple
transportation cost. Induction of flowering through providing appropriate
nutrients, chemicals, wind, and availability of insect for pollination decides
fruiting, ripening and fruit lose.

Harvest and storage management

Harvesting methods differ based on crop types, timing, storage duration and
transportation. Timely harvesting can prevent seeds or fruits not to germinate
and help maintaining high quality. Certain harvest need to be done before
raining or heavy wind. Harvested materials mostly need to be stored at dry
and cool warehouses. Moisture content of the storage rooms should be
maintained at required level. The data can digitally be linked to transport
companies and food processors for decision making.

Impact of digital farming

Digitization of agriculture will impact literally every linked service such as

agri-financing, biotech and agro-chemical players, agri-tech firms, farmers,
growers, food processors, traders, retailers, consumers, waste management
firms and geopolitical regulations and policy making.
Data analysis based on yield estimation, market demand, weather conditions
and cost can help farmers to avail financial support or crop insurance.
Biotech- and agro-chemical industries can benefit from controlling its R&D,
operations, distributions and retailing. Removal of middlemen charges
increases income. Food processors, traders and consumers can benefit from
traceability. Real-time tracking of food production can solve quality
compliance issues and certification needs.Governments can easily derive
policies, budgets and regulate agri-produce and control food wastage and
stability.

Emergence of AgTech entrepreneurs, attraction of new generation farmers is

expected outcomes. Data analysts, data protection officers, data and
regulatory auditors, blockchain specialists, AgTech management consultants
and agribusiness analysts will be in demand as the industry grows.
Consultants with blend of agriculture, technology, fintech and business
knowledge can fill the gap between farmers, food and agtech companies to
bring the right solutions on the verge of this change. McKinskey, EY, Bain,
ATKearney and BCG are known for agriculture consulting services.
Boutique consultants are abundant, and start-ups need candidate who can
connect and develop market.

Concluding remarks
To come back to my father’s question, digitization of agriculture has a lot of
potential to produce more food, make farmers rich and create new jobs.
However, in my opinion, controlling of food wastage (i.e. about 35% or 1.3
billion tons is wasted) and even distribution to the starving parts of the world
will be able to solve sustainability of food supply and environment.
Digitization of entire agribusiness value chain will solve these issues.

About the author: Prabhu Shankar Lakshmanan holds a PhD (Plant Breeding and Genetics)
from Gent University/ILVO, Belgium and pursuing Global MBA specialization in Management
Consulting and AgBigData at GGSB, France.
References

Pham, X., and Stack, M. 2018. How data analytics is transforming

agriculture. Business Horizons, 61(1), 125-133.

Wolfert, S., Ge, L., Verdouw, C. and Bogaardt, M.J., 2017. Big data in smart
farming–a review. Agricultural Systems, 153, pp.69-80.