The digitization of agricultural activity has accelerated in recent years and allowed the appearance of new technologies that allow the producer to achieve better yields, automate the registration of operations of the entire commercial chain, exchange information with other producers and access financing from distributors and suppliers for supplies and services.
Words like “digital platforms”, “big data”, “bot” or “artificial intelligence” are no longer foreign to the agricultural producer who turns to them to apply more efficient processes, generate larger contracts and liquidations, obtain financing at better rates and terms, and operate in an integrated manner.
Agustín Barberis, CEO of Agrology
“The productive gap, which is the difference in yield that exists between what producers obtain from their crops and what they could obtain, is fundamental for the agricultural sector,” Agustín Barberis, executive director of Agrology, the first community, told Télam digital agriculture in Argentina.
The executive explained that “the answer to reduce this gap is the application of technology that results in more efficient processes and an increase in performance of 30% or 40%”.
Yield gaps can reach up to eight tons in crops such as corn in areas such as La Pampa, Buenos Aires and Córdoba, with which production can be doubled
“When we talk about the gap, we are not comparing laboratory or microplot yields as an objective with open field yields in extension, but we are discussing how to help producers who are in the lower percentiles of yield, in the same area and same soils, applying certain practices and technologies, manage to increase it,” said Barberis.
According to data from Agrology, Yield gaps can reach up to eight tons in crops such as corn in areas such as La Pampa, Buenos Aires and Córdoba, with which production can be doubled.
Barberis stressed the importance of “the use of digital platforms that allow evaluating and comparing indicators in real time, as well as the use of robotics or artificial intelligence to get the most out of each campaign.”
Thus, he stressed that “producers must handle ‘big data’ (big data) to make better decisions: sales price, yields, costs, marketing of grains, among other issues”, because he stated that “this will allow them to have a broad perspective to look at the entire productive ecosystem and take the best path in terms of business”.
Barberis stressed the importance of the use of digital platforms that allow evaluating and comparing indicators in real time
Recognized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as one of the ten most innovative agtech startups in Latin America, Agree is a company that seeks to facilitate access to capital by connecting suppliers of products and services, a network of distributors and producers.
“Digitalization is not only about speeding up times and making communication more efficient. It is above all about generating a safe and reliable environment that helps everyone make more informed decisions, understanding what is relevant for each of the parties,” he told this agency. Product Director of the company, Sebastián Miret.
The platform allows the simultaneous selection of different options for currencies, guarantees and terms for the financing of supplies, insurance and agricultural services through a fully digital process.
To access the credit, you must choose the provider with which you want to operate and the amount to be financed, enter the platform and request the credit, and once approved, the funds are deposited in the provider’s account.
Blas Briceno, CEO of Finnegans
For his part, the executive director of Finnegans, Blas Briceño, told Télam that “Agriculture has been experiencing a very strong digitization process”and pointed out that the developments produced for the sector “generated great operational efficiency.”
In this regard, he gave as an example that “from the integration of electronic information and a bot, it is possible to automate the registration of the company’s operations throughout the grain commercial chain, a process that is normally dense and bureaucratic.”
“Basically, speed, simplicity and efficiency are achieved for the coordination of tasks such as certificates of deposit, primary settlements and grain contracts, quota management, bills of lading and price fixing.”
Juan José Debuchy, executive director of Humber
Along the same lines, the executive director of Humber, Juan José Debuchy, told this agency that “the greatest challenge of digitization today is in the agricultural sector”. And he explained that it is about “being able to integrate with other platforms so that the whole operation really ends up being easier for the producer.”
“Like, for example, that a harvester be integrated with the accounting system, with the AFIP, with the loading orders,” said Debuchy, who stressed that the objective is “that the producer does not have to load the same information several times in a but that the applications he uses are integrated with each other and can be a complete end-to-end flow. That is, he can do an operation using two or three platforms but he never finds out that he went from one platform to the next. other”.
The executive of the digital platform that connects agricultural producers with cargo carriers stressed that “there is still a generational question of daring to try new things” by agricultural producers, and considered that “the segment and the products have to mature to that in time digitization will be a reality”.
