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IBM to Launch Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture
USAgNet - 09/25/2018

When you think about artificial intelligence, you probably don't imagine using it for a farm. But you should: this week, IBM is bringing data and AI together with the global release of the Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture to help growers makes better decisions. This new platform is an innovation that draws upon IBM's most advanced capabilities in AI, analytics, IoT, Cloud, and weather to create a powerful new resource that spans the full farm-to-fork ecosystem.

Farming has always been a complex undertaking that requires growers to manage an interconnected web of pre-season and in-season decisions while at the mercy of mother nature. With the explosion of data from farm equipment, environmental sensors, and remote input, it's impractical to rely on intuition or traditional technology to understand what drives variation in yield or provide guidance to growers. IBM is filling this gap by applying Watson AI to the data to generate the decision support growers need to make confident, evidence-based decisions.

In parallel, food companies are looking for ways to meet consumer demand for better food quality and sustainability. IBM's solution will bridge food companies and their grower suppliers to better manage the inputs and farming practices that can deliver on the promise of improved food quality. IBM is drawing on its experience with improving products ranging from wine to tomatoes to make this vision a reality.

Growers are already benefiting from IBM's efforts to integrate data sources while extracting insights from them. "Until now, nobody has tackled putting all this information into one place," says 3rd-generation farmer Roric Paulman. "I've got 40 different ag apps on my phone. It just stops being useful."

Paulman has 10,000 acres under cultivation in Nebraska and he generates one terabyte of data every month. IBM's new platform allows him to bring everything together on his phone so he has a powerful, unified view of his farm.

For Paulman and other farmers, bringing AI to bear on data provides startling new powers. Growers can now film a field of corn from a drone and use AI-enabled visual recognition analysis to identify crop disease or a pest infestation. The app also allows the grower to photograph struggling plants up-close and identify the exact pest or disease. On Paulman's farm, an agronomist currently visits once a week to analyze infestations and blight. Now, with a simple photo, Paulman can immediately find out what type of insect is affecting his plants and he can take remediation action.


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