Digital Agriculture Bytes against Hunger Translating local and personal approaches of digital agriculture
SEEDS
IoT CROPS
BIG DATA
FARM
VALUE CHAIN Contents
Introduction 3 Background 3 Challenges 4
Scope 6 The agricultural value chain 7 Digitization of the yield – machinery or donkey? 10
Opportunities for digital solutions 12 Digitization of seeds and crops 12 Big data 14 Precision agriculture 15 Intelligent automation 16
IoT – connected agriculture 18 Platforms 19 Connected services 20 Track and trace 22 Digital business development 23
Capgemini’s holistic approach to digital agriculture 24
References 26
Contact details 27
2 The information contained in this document is proprietary. ©2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. Introduction We are pleased to present you with our latest white paper on digital agriculture. Our objective is to share our point of view on the digital developments in agribusiness, the challenges the industry currently faces, and how they can be overcome with evolving digital solutions. While agriculture is a broad sector, digital agriculture is of particular relevance to companies working with or supplying relevant data (e.g., meteorological) and equipment and supplies manufacturers. This white paper focuses on opportunities for these companies in the context of a relevant, local, and personal journey for the individual farmer.
Background The limiting factor has shifted from low yields due to a lack of mechanization via As an essential component of human excessive but unevenly distributed food life, agriculture has been challenged production (Alexandratos and Bruinsma, time and again by climate and natural 2012) to a lack of available farming area. hazards, population growth, and scarcity Mechanization allowed more area to be of arable land. The majority of the utilized with a smaller workforce. Higher world’s agricultural areas are clustered yields on stable area used was the in Africa, the Americas, and Asia, hallmark of the green revolution from totaling over 48 million km² globally, the 1950s to 1970s (Conway, 1998). or 37.2% of the land mass (FAO, 2017a; Given predictions World Bank, 2018a). Despite sufficient Additionally, agricultural employment that the world’s food production, 800 million people dropped from 43% in the early 1990s worldwide do not have adequate access to 26.5% in 2017 (World Bank, 2018c). population will reach to food. Given predictions that the Nonetheless, nearly two billion people 10 billion by 2050 and world’s population will reach 10 billion are employed in the sector, primarily as by 2050, and in light of the dietary shifts smallholder farmers. in light of the dietary occurring in developing countries (FAO, shifts occurring in 2017b), agriculture is once more faced In light of a declining workforce and with a tall order. increasing demand, it is necessary to developing countries, develop the agricultural sector with new agriculture is once Previously, natural catastrophes and products, practices, and technologies. resource restrictions limited human The agricultural sector has a significant more faced with a tall population growth (Meadows et al., potential for digital tools as it is order.” 1973). Technology has the ambiguous currently the least-digitized, far behind role of both facilitating unprecedented industries such as hospitality and health population growth and providing a care (Goedde et al., 2015). potential solution to the resulting challenges. In this respect, technological Therefore, the challenges incorporate aspects such as big data and IoT, or both technological step-changes developments in crop growth or and the intricate adaptation to new biological soil enhancements all provide conditions –climate and technology. It key and interlinking developments. is not a one-size-fits-all approach, but
3 instead requires close assessment of no approach to sustain and increase the situation to focus the journey to yields can be considered universally adaptable agriculture both on the applicable or suitable. The importance tractor and the donkey – depending on of farming in a local context must also requirements, targets, and challenges. be recognized as well as its role in No approach to global food production requirements. Bearing in mind your individual sustain and increase approaches and storylines, and Challenge II – Farming set-up yields can be the climate and culture you live in, Farming is by no means uniform and Capgemini, as a global IT leader farming scale is strongly determined considered universally with deep roots in application and by geographic region. Europe and applicable or suitable.” innovation management, is able to the Americas represent 74% of farms take the digital journey with you larger than 10 ha whereas 85% of to overcome these challenges and those smaller than 10 ha are found in leverage your potential to accomplish Asia (Lowder, Skoet, and Singh, 2014). breakthroughs within the agricultural Thus, it is important to acknowledge value chain to face the future. the need for technology and farm suitability at various scales and to Challenges recognize the key opportunities that new technologies can bring to Currently, agriculture is racing to keep smallholder development. pace with basic food requirements and dietary demands within the context Challenge III – Individual, adaptable of a projected world population farming Digital agriculture cannot be of 9.7 billion by 2050 (FAO, 2017b). seen as a one-size-fits-all approach. Global factors such as climate change, The requirements for each farm or water availability, the labor force, and region, the current baseline, and the consumer demands challenge the famers’ personal aims need to be agricultural status quo. Other factors accounted for in any structural change. primarily result from the relevant local Supporting the adaptation of suitable baseline for the individual farmer and technology at scale and across regions their adaptability to technology and is key. Digital agriculture change. Regardless of the challenges, the pressing need to feed increasing Challenge IV – Industrial cannot be seen as numbers of people with nearly equal distribution Significant private a one-size-fits-all amounts of arable land within a short investments into agriculture can time frame remains. be observed and farmland prices approach.” are increasing (Eurostat, 2016). Key challenges, which are both Additionally, new opportunities geographically and technologically within the sector covering seeds, interconnected, need to be addressed crop production support, and farm by future-orientated agriculture management are attracting more and the technological advances attention from big players. Therefore, available under the umbrella of digital the challenge is to establish adaptable, agriculture. future-orientated agriculture by drawing on the opportunities created Challenge I – Agricultural disparity by the interlinking of companies The industry has various baselines and sectors. in terms of scale and mechanization depending on region, farming Challenge V – Modern utilities and intensity, and predominant production precision agriculture The analogy (i.e., subsistence farming or large- of tractor versus donkey provides scale consumer markets). Therefore, a key insight into the challenge of
4 Digital agriculture - point of view modern utilities. Not every innovation Challenge VII – Infrastructure is suitable for every agricultural Implementing new technology both opportunity. Especially considering drives infrastructure and is dependent the disparity in agricultural targets and on it. Rural areas may, even in high- scale across the globe certain methods income countries, lack a suitable can be of varied impact across regions digital infrastructure of internet due to data availability. or mobile phone coverage. Digital opportunities are challenged by the Challenge VI – Consumer demands requirements of the individual farmer Choices available and consumer within their local context under the demands in terms of sourcing potentially restrictive bottleneck of and sustainability sustainability of digital infrastructure. agricultural products have increased significantly in recent decades. Digital agriculture, when applied Consumer demand can be tackled with foresight and adaptability, is set with optimized systems, such as track to provide solutions to many of the and trace. Additionally, targeted problems facing the industry today. In assessment of food consumption other words, the only way the tractor and demand patterns would make will replace the donkey in the field is if it possible to cascade production the advances it brings are credible and accordingly and lever technology at deployable. suitable points.
Digital opportunities are challenged by the requirements of the individual farmer within their local context under the potentially restrictive bottleneck of digital infrastructure.”
5 Scope
Agriculture is spread across the globe high- intensive farming areas, and is relevant as a key resource for whereas they still contain areas of all of the world’s population. As a low agriculture income, subsistence result, approaches to agriculture agriculture, and limited mechanization vary greatly depending on levels (Eurostat, 2016). Thus, significant of commercialization, how deeply opportunities, both geographic and Agricultural connected the local population is to technological, are available. Aligning capacity varies the land and agricultural processes, these opportunities to the particular specific local features, needs, and needs and goals of each farmer is the on a sliding scale, potential. Agricultural capacity varies key challenge. from subsistence on a sliding scale, from subsistence agriculture to large-scale industrial set This white paper addresses the agriculture to large- up. Given these differences in scale, a challenges and opportunities scale industrial set up.” nuanced assessment that recognizes facing agriculture through a the different baseline conditions and mixed-perspective approach. Not common-core issues, such as global only large-scale farming, but also distribution of yields, accessibility smallholder agriculture, are of key of technology, feasibility of smart importance. Buzzwords such as mechanized farming, and the individual “digital agriculture” or “smart farming” requirements of the farmer is critical. dominate the discussion. Nevertheless, Agriculture is an it is important to highlight the concepts Geographic location is key for two and factors behind these terms and industry based on reasons. First, changing climate assess their impact on farming in terms personal experience patterns and abiotic conditions already of the industry in general and of local acutely affect yield and approach farms in particular. Adapting digital and individual farm- (intensive versus extensive farming) farming to its geographic context based records. and will continue to do so at an even and to its stakeholders is at the heart larger scale in the future. Secondly, of this overview. Socio-economic Data sharing and the geographic location of a farm challenges, available technologies, and integration along does not necessarily reflect farming economies of scale explain why farming characteristics. North America is undertaken and how it impacts the the value chain as and Europe are mostly considered farmers’ lives. well as across the industry could provide Figure 1: Background significant benefits.” Commercial Industrial farming farming Regional mid size Farming farming motivation mallholder farming
Subsistence farming
Low Knowledge and High Infrastructure Source: Capgemini 6 Digital agriculture - point of view Figure 2: Agriculture value chain