Clean Digital Data Represents a Persistent Early Hurdle for Tech-Curious Farmers

Clean data is still needed before artificial intelligence gains can be felt across most of the agricultural sector, said experts during the Unlocking the Value of AI on the Digital Farming Journey panel discussion at the 2023 Organic Grower Summit (OGS) held last week in Monterey, California.

“The biggest barrier we have to digital agriculture is the farmer’s notebook and three-ring binders,” said panel moderator Rob Trice of Better Food Ventures. “There is a digital divide.”

Rob Trice, Founder, Better Food Ventures

Even the most progressive farming operations rely on human input for the majority of farm functions, including data collection. Artificial intelligence tools will only work in a farmer’s favor once “clean data sets” are achieved, Trice said. 

“There is a digital divide.” - Rob Trice

Derek Azevedo, executive vice president at Bowles Farming, echoed Trice’s sentiment. Bowles Farming is a Los Banos, California-based operation that manages 11,000 acres of diverse crops, including alfalfa, tomatoes, cotton, almonds, melons, and herbs. 

During the panel, Azevedo described his early efforts to digitize data collection “pain and no gain” and said that at one point he was using 42 different, incompatible data dashboards. “The user experience was so awful,” Azevedo said. “It was 17 clicks on an app to turn on an irrigation system.” 

Derek Azevedo, Executive Vice President, Bowles Farming

Farmers must seek out technology solutions to solve “gritty, tough problems in agriculture” that provide practical, realistic solutions for growers, said Azevedo. “One of the most valuable questions I ask my guys is, ‘What do you have to drive and see to learn about?’ Those are the opportunities.”

Bountiful, a tech company using weather, satellite, geographic, and a farm’s own historical data combined with machine learning, provides one approachable solution for digital data collection, said Bountiful CEO Megan Nunes. The Bountiful platform “transforms volumes of complex agricultural information into simple, actionable insights,” according to the company’s website.

Megan Nunes, Founder and CEO, Bountiful

Today, almond farmers don’t know their final paid weights until eight months after processing, Nunes said during the OGS panel. Therefore, farmers must make decisions based on forecasting and estimates that are “hopefully based on best guesses,” she said.

Technology like Bountiful transforms data from PDFs and Excel files into accessible reports capable of being fed into machine-learning software, said Nunes.

“There are people whose core job it is to find and capture this data,” said Nunes. “And it goes into a filing cabinet, and nobody really looks at [it]. We want to put data back in the hands of farmers.”

Passive data collection was also highlighted as a critical need for farmers who wish to improve operational efficiency with digital tools, said Azevedo, who called passive feeds of data his number one “wish list” item for agricultural technology.

"We want to put data back in the hands of farmers." - Megan Nunes

Irrigation systems send information on pump outputs, and solar panels tell Azevedo when they need to be cleaned, sending his team alerts when tools need attention. “I want something that grabs my attention when my attention is needed,” he said. 

Adopting trusted digital tools now will also help meet the realistic expectations of future agricultural employees, said Azevedo. His employees are increasingly not interested in testing the moisture level of a field by probing the dirt with their fingers but instead look for technological feeds of information to make decisions. “The employees of the future will be tech savvy and tech-dependent,” he said.