As the coronavirus continues to spread around the world, governments have intensified efforts to contain the pandemic by limiting the movement of people and temporarily shutting down parts of the economy.

Old Mutual het al sedert sy ontstaan ’n noue verbintenis met die landbousektor,” sê Koos Nel, Strategiese Bemarkingsbestuurder van Old Mutual Persoonlike Finansies.

How is the South African agricultural sector leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to create digitally integrated farming, asks chief digital officer at Datacentrix, Rudie Raath?

Sensors help agriculture by enabling real-time traceability and diagnosis of crop, livestock and farm machine states.

The Open Deep Learning Toolkit for Robotics project aims to develop a new form of modular, open and non-proprietary ‘all-round’ artificial intelligence toolkit for core robotic functionalities.

The new Arc farm intelligence platform uses predictive modeling based on real-time data.
 
FMC Corporation announced its new Arc farm intelligence platform. The mobile platform delivers real-time data that predicts insects pressure one week in advance to help growers protect yields.

The platform is to help ensure the right crop protection products are applied precisely where and when they are needed to improve sustainability, optimise crop yield and enhance grower return on investment (ROI). Arc utilises aggregated historical data, entomological models, hyper-local weather data, and real-time regional pest mapping.

The offers customised alerts through a mobile app to indicate when action is needed in a field, two-way communication with FMC agronomists, reliable data and high-quality graphics, including graphs and heat maps. - Photo: FMC Corporation
Customised alerts
According to FMC Corporation, the platform offers a full suite of features, including customised alerts through a mobile app to indicate when action is needed in a field, two-way communication with FMC agronomists, reliable data and high-quality graphics, including graphs and heat maps. Arc farm intelligence has been engineered with open APIs and can easily be plugged into growers’ existing digital ecosystems.

Arc farm intelligence app launched in Greece
The platform will be launched commercially this week in Greece for cotton, and it is being piloted in other countries, including Brazil, Spain and the United States, on a broad range of crops from brassicas to corn to lettuce. The Arc farm intelligence app will be available for growers in Greece for free from the Android and iOS app stores.

Insect pressure predicted one week in advance
According to Sara Sterling, director of Precision Agriculture at FMC, the tool predicts insect pressure one week in advance with more than 90 percent confidence for key insects in select crops. “Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive in Brazil and Greece, where it has been used on cotton, and we look forward to introducing Arc farm intelligence in additional countries and crops.”

The COVID-19 crisis is a ‘stress test’ for our global food systems – and they are failing.

As COVID-19 slows in developed countries, the virus’s spread is speeding up in the developing world.

The COVID-19 crisis reminds us of the importance of fighting food insecurity.

Farm profitability can be measured using earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization (EBITA), net farm income, operating profit margin ratio, rate of return on farm assets, and rate of return on farm equity.

Never write off agriculture’s propensity to come to the rescue when it is most needed. While most of the SA economy shrivels, agriculture is booming – up 27.8% in the first quarter of 2020.

In everyday experience, our little kids will tell us, “Mommy or Daddy please buy me chocolate.”

We are all living through something the severity of which we have never experienced before and are currently in the 64rth day of lockdown.