Disclosure
Using planting and harvest maps viewed on his tablet, producer Guiverson Bueno, from Lucas do Rio Verde (MT), carried out tests on corn planting to increase productivity with the help of Climate FieldView, a digital agriculture platform from Bayer. He selected a plot of his property and, in half of the area, increased the population density when planting corn by 10%. In the other half, it followed the standard management that was already adopted on the farm. The result: 11 more bags of corn were harvested in the field where the tool’s recommendation was adopted.
This field was one of the real examples of gains from using FieldView, says Bueno, a multinational customer since 2017. “Since we started using the platform, we have had consistent gains. In soybean farming, our average was around 56 to 58 bags per hectare, and in the penultimate harvest we had an average of 71 bags”, he says. “Whether you like it or not, digital agriculture is responsible for decision-making that can increase productivity and profitability.”
The plot mentioned by the Lucas do Rio Verde producer is one of more than 580 thousand registered with Climate FieldView. Market leader among digital agriculture platforms in Brazil, there are more than 28 million hectares monitored by the platform across the country and almost 12 thousand connected pieces of equipment, tractors and machines.
The brand is Bayer’s main highlight at Agrishow and will have an exclusive stand at the fair where it will be possible to learn about the company’s most recent advances in the process of digital transformation of the countryside. During the five days of the event, visitors will be able to see the Climate FieldView platform in practice through simulators, purchase products at the FieldView Shop, the company’s physical store at the stand, attend live classes organized by FieldView University, an arm of the company that teaches courses focused on digital agriculture, and learn about projects and innovations that are yet to reach the market, with the potential to transform the sector in the coming years.
The stand will also be attended by different producers who will participate in the so-called FieldView Technical Parades, where examples and customers are shared to clarify doubts, explore solutions and present the brand’s innovations, with the participation of technicians, Climate FieldView consultants and Climate FieldView’s own customers. company.
“Bayer was the first company to bring a digital platform focused on agriculture to Brazil and, since then, we have directly contributed to farmers in their quest to maximize productivity and sustainability of their agricultural practices”, says Abdalah Novaes, agricultural solutions leader Bayer digital services for Latin America.
According to the executive, the impact and benefits vary according to the reality of each farmer, but the transformation provided by digital in agriculture is a path of no return. “In soybean farming alone, producers who use Climate FieldView harvest an average of 7 more bags of soybeans per hectare than the national average measured by Conab (National Supply Company). In addition to the gains in efficiency, optimization of resources, time and investment that can already be felt in the first harvest using our tools.”
Driving digital transformation in the field
Since 2015, Climate FieldView has been committed to being close to producers as a partner for daily use in agronomic decisions on farms. To this end, the company has invested in building a robust digital ecosystem, one of its biggest differentiators in Brazilian agriculture. “While there are several discussions about regenerative agriculture, digital ecosystems and digitalization, we have emerged as the company with the greatest potential to transform these concepts into real solutions”, says Thiago Bortoli, leader of New Business Models in Latin America for Bayer.
To this end, Bayer continues to place the farmer at the center of its strategy with the aim of enabling digital transformation in the countryside. “By combining understanding the producer’s pain points with cutting-edge technology, big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence, we are able to customize solutions according to the real needs of each farmer”, says Bortoli.
An example is the Bayer VAlora Corn, a program that offers personalized recommendations for corn planting population density and nitrogen application, which can also be seen up close at the Climate FieldView stand. To date, more than 700 farmers have participated in the initiative, with more than 300 thousand hectares registered. As a result, 70% of them had an increase in productivity, with an average gain of 4% in successful cases.
Another company initiative is the program Barter+, which, after pilot and validation phases, will be commercially launched this year. Barter+ customizes barter transactions based on producer productivity data recorded on the Climate FieldView platform, rather than the standard Conab calculation. In the first year, around 15% of barter businesses were registered in this new modality, resulting in an increase in productivity and customer purchasing potential of around 25%.
The Climate FieldView stand at Agrishow will also provide information about two programs in the testing and validation phase. One of them is the Bayer Direct Nematode, which aims to offer a personalized prescription for the application of Verango® Prime nematicide in soybean growing areas. The program’s proposal is to map the areas at greatest risk of economic damage by nematodes, in each field, providing a precise prescription for application, instead of doing it throughout the area, leading to an optimization in the use of inputs and expanding the producer’s earning potential. Currently, more than 160 producers are participating in the program’s tests, covering an area of more than 30 thousand hectares.
Another project still in the early stages of development is the FieldView Advisor, which will use data from Climate FieldView and assist producers in choosing seeds and positioning soybeans, showing the performance of varieties in each region, crop and production environment; demonstrating planting date and population with the greatest potential per variety, among other information.
“We want to be essential partners for rural producers, offering not just digital solutions, but this complete ecosystem that integrates technology, knowledge and sustainability. More than providing digital tools, we are committed to generating value beyond the platform and driving the digital revolution in agriculture by building bridges between innovation and real impact in the field”, says Bortoli.
New partnership during Agrishow
Another project still in the development phase, which also presents new features during Agrishow, is the strategic partnership signed between Bayer and Microsoft, which aims to transform the way in which digital transformation is capable of impacting Brazilian agribusiness. The agreement foresees a series of advances that could impact the sector in the coming years, including the launch of Microsoft Azure Data Manager for Agriculture (ADMA) — a cloud-based Microsoft platform that brings together a series of digital tools, available for other companies to license and develop their own internal platforms and customer-facing solutions; and Bayer AgPowered Services (APS) — features that can be licensed by other companies and organizations for their own use.
Bayer and Microsoft’s latest partner in this transformation journey is Stara, a Brazilian agricultural machinery and implement company that is a reference in the sector. The company from Não-Me-Toque (RS) is working together on a proof of concept of Bayer’s digital cloud platform solutions, integrating solutions through APIs, receiving data and testing AgPowered Services to improve its own solutions aimed at other companies (B2B).
“The development of ADMA and APS is part of Bayer’s digital strategy aimed at agribusiness companies. Having Stara as one of the first agricultural machinery companies connected to the platform will help us bring better digital solutions to connected farmers”, says Guilherme Belardo, business development leader for data and cloud solutions at Bayer for Latin America.
“Connectivity and integration between platforms, in a simplified and transparent way for farmers, is the current challenge for all global agribusiness companies. We found in the technologies led by Bayer and Microsoft, through ADMA and APS, the chance to change this scenario”, says Cristiano Paim Buss, director of Research and Development at Stara.
The news is another step in Bayer’s strategy of supporting organizations to access ready-made resources and create a robust digital infrastructure, instead of developing from scratch. The expectation is that other advances resulting from the partnership between Bayer and Microsoft will be announced throughout the year.