Big data shows big
promise for feeding
the world
Juergen Voegele
Digital innovations are set to transform a global food system in crisis.
T
hese innovations, however, are reliant
on large sets of data to help farmers
make informed decisions and predict
crop outcomes. From soil moisture
to weather patterns and historical yield,
countries like the United States and the United
Kingdom have a lot of “big data” to put to
work. The U.S. Department of Agriculture,
for example, has over a century of farm and
public data to draw from.
But why does this matter?
Ask any farmer, from California to Colombia,
and they will tell you that unpredictable
weather patterns are making farming harder.
The recent Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change report warned that global
warming of 2 degrees will cause corn yields to
shrink by 15 percent. In Africa, this could reach
20 percent if temperatures rise by 3 degrees,
causing corn production to entirely collapse in
some regions.
Crunching huge datasets, however, is
increasingly allowing farmers to visualize this
uncertain future, and prepare for it.
The University of Minnesota, for example,
has used advanced computer modelling to
predict a number of future scenarios for corn
production, using Iowa as a microcosm for
global production. The study showed that
globally, corn yields could drop between 15
and 50 percent due to warmer air and cycles
of drought followed by heavy rain. This is likely
to occur when the world’s population hits 9
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billion, leading to an increase in as much as 60
percent for food needs.
This knowledge is power. Farmers can now act
to protect yields, investing in technology such
as heat-tolerant crop breeds.
This type of work has huge to potential to
benefit the rest of the world, where more
people are going hungry. Most nations in
the developing world, however, face a “black
hole” when it comes to farm data. This makes
predictions and preparations like those carried
out at the University of Minnesota impossible.
Public research networks like CGIAR
are working to bridge this data gap in
collaboration with universities and companies.
The first stumbling block is that sophisticated
technologies—such as smart sensors and
cameras that farmers can use to collect and
analyse data—are priced out of reach for
small-scale farmers in poorer countries. They
may also live in remote areas, without an
internet connection.
That is why companies like Microsoft are
working on solutions to slash the cost of
digital farming technologies and coming up
with alternative ways to get small farmers
connected.
The FarmBeats project, for example, has
developed a low-cost alternative to a drone
that can capture farm data from the sky.
“Tethered Eye” helium balloons are used to act
as aerial sensors, generating images of farm
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