The agriculture {industry} is at a turning level. While meals could appear plentiful in lots of international areas, the variety of folks going hungry has continued to extend during the last 9 years. To feed rising populations sustainably and effectively, the best way we produce meals should change. From the soil—the place enhancements to farming practices may also help mitigate local weather change to the shelf—the place clients search for merchandise with minimal carbon footprint—the agriculture and meals worth chain is primed for innovation.
That’s why we’re thrilled to announce that Microsoft Azure Data Manager for Agriculture is now obtainable in preview. At Microsoft, we’ve lengthy acknowledged that scaling innovation throughout the {industry} begins with information. What started with Project FarmBeats, an formidable initiative to gather and remodel agricultural information, has now developed right into a well timed industrial resolution.
Azure Data Manager for Agriculture extends the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform with industry-specific information connectors and capabilities to attach farm information from disparate sources, enabling organizations to leverage high-quality datasets and speed up the event of digital agriculture options. Instead of devoting assets to managing unstructured information, clients and companions can concentrate on product innovation with the power to motive over available and considerable information. Furthermore, organizations can use in-house, third-party, or Intelligent Data Platform providers to hurry the trail to analytics and enterprise intelligence options. With a related ecosystem of companions constructing options on prime of Azure Data Manager for Agriculture, that is one other step in the direction of a related and collaborative agriculture {industry}.
Accelerate innovation by information
With a lot agriculture-relevant information generated throughout the farm—from sensors within the soil to satellites orbiting the earth—many organizations don’t have the assets to harness it successfully. Azure Data Manager for Agriculture helps break down information silos, permitting organizations to construct options that present predictive and prescriptive insights on soil well being, altering climate patterns, waste monitoring, carbon sequestration, and extra.
For instance, Bayer used Azure Data Manager for Agriculture to shift from a self-managed information property to a managed mannequin with Microsoft. Bayer’s FieldView platform harnesses information from Azure Data Manager for Agriculture’s satellite tv for pc and climate pipelines to allow insights on potential yield-limiting elements in growers’ fields. In addition, Bayer is making their industry-leading experience obtainable to enterprise clients within the type of AgPowered Services—a set of options that ingest information from Azure Data Manager for Agriculture to offer well timed insights on crop well being, climate forecast, crop progress monitoring, and extra.
Not solely is Bayer working their options on Azure Data Manager for Agriculture, however they’re additionally bringing a long time of agriculture experience to assist develop a sturdy Azure Data Manager. Thanks to our strategic partnership, we’re leveraging Bayer’s {industry} information—in addition to information connectors, fashions, transformations, and workflows—to tell how we strengthen Azure Data Manager for Agriculture and empower organizations to deal with the challenges in agriculture at the moment.
“Azure Data Manager for Agriculture is an important step towards accelerating the impact of big data and agriculture. With high-quality data fueling insights, we expect to see a value chain that is more predictable, more transparent, and importantly, where the value is shared all the way back to producers.”—Jeremy Williams, Head of Climate and Digital Farming, Bayer Crop Science.
Enable a extra sustainable future
Feeding a rising international inhabitants and constructing a more healthy world is simply attainable if sustainability is practiced from farm to fork. With Azure Data Manager for Agriculture, agriculture enter suppliers can speed up options that empower farmers to undertake extra sustainable practices. For instance, Azure Data Manager for Agriculture is a foundational element for Land O’Lakes’ digital choices, together with the Truterra sustainability instrument. Truterra offers perception into how completely different agricultural practices influence water, nitrogen, and carbon on a farm, and it permits farmers to trace their soil’s carbon sequestration and take part in carbon markets.
“Through our collaboration [with Microsoft], we are enabling farmers with new services to improve their operations and to quantify data for their customers that tells a story of sustainability.”—Teddy Bekele, Chief Technology Officer, Land O’Lakes, Inc.
Cultivate belief rooted in transparency
Consumers and traders alike are placing strain on firms to be clear about their agricultural and sustainability practices. With a clearer view into farm operations, firms can take an necessary step to determine belief with traders and clients. Azure Data Manager for Agriculture permits organizations to interchange self-reported information with high-quality farm information to offer extra correct data to stakeholders—serving to firms construct model belief by ethically and sustainably produced merchandise. And as safety and privateness issues develop, organizations can relaxation assured understanding their information is saved in essentially the most trusted cloud, constructed to satisfy stringent safety and compliance necessities.
The Microsoft dedication to sustainability
Azure Data Manager for Agriculture is just one a part of the Microsoft dedication to accelerating progress towards a extra sustainable planet. With their subsequent initiative, Project FarmVibes, Microsoft Research is constructing toolkits and AI fashions which might be obtainable in Microsoft Open Source to advance agriculture innovation within the scientific group throughout academia and enterprise.
Microsoft has additionally launched Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, which empowers organizations to speed up sustainability progress and enterprise progress by bringing collectively a rising set of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) capabilities from Microsoft and our international ecosystem of companions. Together, we’re preserving sustainability on the core of our choices, and we search to empower organizations to undertake extra regenerative and sustainable farming practices.
Learn extra and remodel your operations at the moment
If you’re concerned about utilizing Azure Data Manager for Agriculture for your corporation, you possibly can join right here. Azure Data Manager for Agriculture requires registration and is presently solely obtainable to accredited clients and companions throughout the preview interval.