{"id":2856,"date":"2015-11-23T01:42:22","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T06:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/monsanto-climate-corp-big-data-transforming-the-agriculture-industry\/"},"modified":"2015-11-23T08:17:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T13:17:38","slug":"monsanto-climate-corp-big-data-transforming-the-agriculture-industry","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/monsanto-climate-corp-big-data-transforming-the-agriculture-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Monsanto & Climate Corp: Big Data Transforming the Agriculture Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monsanto made a big bet on data analytics to unlock agriculture\u2019s potential $20 billion revenue growth opportunity by reducing input costs and increasing yields when it acquired Precision Planting LLC in 2012 for $210 million (which it just recently strategically divested to John Deere) and Climate Corp. for $930 million in 2013. The importance of data for the farming industry is vital in order to meet the needs of the rapidly growing population of >9 billion people by 2050 with limited resources of only ~3.5 billion acres of arable land.[i]<\/a> Data aggregation and predictive analytics will help farmers adapt to climate change and ultimately make better decisions both pre and post-planting, gain productivity, and increase output.<\/p>\n

\"future-of-farming\"<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/big-data-and-farming-2015-8<\/a><\/p>\n

With the acquisition of Climate Corp, Monsanto was able to integrate years of seed and crop protection data with Climate Corp\u2019s extensive agriculture database pulled from government satellites, weather stations, sensors, and other resources. Climate Corp\u2019s Climate Basic<\/em> mobile application maps soil and climate data to a 10-meter-by-10-meter resolution for the 30 million agriculture fields in America.[ii]<\/a> The mobile application knows the fields\u2019 temperature, soil moisture, and other agriculture yield-indicators and can make recommendations to the farmer as to when to water, what type of fertilizer\/pesticides to use, when to irrigate, as well as roughly predict harvest per crop based on historical, current, and forecasted weather conditions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Monsanto estimates that farmers typically make 40 key choices over the course of the growing season from what seed to plant, when to plant it, and how to maintain the seed until yield. For each decision, there is an opportunity to save money on inputs\u2014water, fuel, seeds, and chemical treatments as well as an opportunity to increase yield\u2014when to farm, what to plant and where, identify conditions like pests before they result in loss, etc.<\/p>\n

Since the acquisition, the mobile application has been advanced and recently re-launched as Climate<\/em> FieldView<\/em>, comprising of eight features. [iii]<\/a><\/p>\n