Bringing Advanced Crop Models To Agriculture

By: Willie Vogt

One of the agtech challenges facing farmers, and the ag industry, is the abundance of data and the lack of tools to help make decisions. Every major player in the market is grinding away on software and new machine-learning systems. A major tech player is upping the ante with news this week of the expansion of its program into global agriculture.

IBM announced Wednesday, May 22, that it will provide a global agriculture solution combining predictive technology with The Weather Company data and Internet of Things sensor information to give farmers greater insights into all aspects of their operations. “IBM has a global footprint,” observes Jeff Keiser, lead offering manager, agribusiness solutions, The Weather Company. “The Watson Decision Platform is relatively new, but it demonstrates our capacity and capability to serve a global marketplace.”

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IBM and its Watson system, first made famous on Jeopardy a few years ago, is a system that can draw in a vast amount of information and help make decisions from that data. Farmers have been testing an early version of the platform, showing the potential of the system.

Keiser explains that this latest announcement builds on that early work, offering a range of crop modeling tools for key crops including corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, sorghum, barley, sugar cane and potatoes. And there’s the promise of more to come.

IBM has been ramping up its presence in agriculture. Earlier this year, the company announced a new partnership with Yara to bring digital services to the farm. “With this latest global expansion, we want to tie into the global client base,” Keiser adds. He explains that the Yara relationship is a good example of the global partnerships the company hopes to make through this latest crop expansion.