T
he rapid growth rate of world’s population presents tremendous challenges for humanity, the biggest of which is how
to sustainably feed the world. The Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations estimates that agricultural
production will have to increase by around 60 per cent by 2050 to
feed the planet. To meet this challenge, however, the way we do
agriculture must change substantially. Farming has to optimize,
and to do that, it must get more technical.
As always, farmers deal with many uncertainties and risks like
weather changes, input prices, incidence of pests and disease,
equipment failures, and fluctuations in market prices on a daily
basis. They also have to make significant decisions each day.
However, these decisions can be a risk themselves because most
farmers cannot accurately predict what impact they will have on
the resulting crop yields.
So, to minimize the risks involved in farming, farmers must
make better-informed decisions. In order to make better-informed
decisions, farmers must efficiently control the management practices
that are in their hands. This depends on accurate data analysis.
Precise Fertilization
The precise use of fertilizers
contributes to an increase in
crop yields more than any
other technique. However,
to maximize crop yields
and prevent nutrient losses
to soil, water, and air,
fertilizers must be applied
more efficiently. Currently,
the misuse of fertilizers is a
global phenomenon due to
the complexity of finding the
optimal fertilization range.
Many farmers still rely on
trial and error, guesswork,
and estimation. The result is
crops that do not meet their
yield potential, and increased
environmental pollution.
Knowing the exact fertilizer
rate is a science and requires a
thorough analysis of multiple
factors. In fact, farmers often
have to consider hundreds
of dynamic parameters, such
as crop nutrient uptake rates,
research data, soil chemicals,
physical and biological
properties, weather, water
composition, soil testing
methods, irrigation techniques,
fertilizer characteristics,
and interactions between
fertilizers. Processing these
large data sets to continuously
return sustainable fertilizer
recommendations requires
skills, vast knowledge, and
access to agricultural research
and databases.
However, research results
and scientific publications are
often not readily available
to farmers. When they are
available, data is often difficult
to read, partial (for instance, it
refers to only one nutrient), or
does not fit the farmer’s specific
field conditions. What’s more,
research data is often not
consistent. Data obtained from
one research paper is different
than the data obtained from
another. As such, an enormous
amount of research results
and data must be compared
and analyzed to obtain a
reliable knowledge base.
Evidently, without precision
ag technologies, this is an
impossible task.
The Technological
Revolution of Big Data
Big data analytics of agricultural research results and
actual, historical field data
creates a continuously updated,
reliable knowledgebase. This
can revolutionize the way
farmers make daily decisions.
It can help farmers sustainably increase crop yields, save
money and time, and make the
right decision time after time.
To take advantage of this data
revolution, however, farmers
need to have direct access to
cloud-based decision-making
tools. These translate the huge
amounts of data and analytics
“
The Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations estimates that
agricultural production will have
to increase by around 60 per cent by
2050 to feed the planet."
into best practices and actionable
information. Thankfully, in
contrast to most other tools in
agriculture, software algorithms
and data analytics do not require
any hardware installation.
Ideally, they should easily
integrate with any external
source of data, such as sensors,
drones, and machinery.
Fertilizer optimization, based on
big data analytics, help farmers
maximize crop yields in the most
efficient and economical way.
Not only does the farmer get
access to an easy-to-use interface
that eliminates the guesswork
and minimizes the uncertainties involved in making fertilizer
management decisions, but the
software also provides projections, alerts and reports. It’s just
a bonus that the software works
on any device, including laptops,
smart phones, and tablets.
Guy Sela is a plant nutrition expert and the CEO
of SMART! Fertilizer Management, which makes
an innovative software for fertilizer optimization.
The software provides optimized and fast fertilizer
recommendations and helps growers dramatically
increase their crop yields and save costs.
Maximum Yield USA | January 2017
147