The future of farming

9

October

2021

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Precision farming, also known as satellite farming or smart farming, is a farming management concept aiming optimize crop health and reducing environmental costs of farming through monitoring crop health automatically and systematically by using satellite data. The satellite data has a high degree of accuracy and can help to monitor the changes of agricultural production and activity by providing agricultural maps (The European Space Agency, sd). The figure below shows an example of an agricultural map.

Figure 1. Agricultural map (Satellite Imaging Corporation,SD)

Although satellite technology has been around for decades, precision farming is just around the corner of the mainstream market because neural networks and big data accelerates the usefulness of the satellite data (Jacobs, 2019). The data becomes more interesting for decision making because it can collect, combine and analyze data quickly and accurately. Besides, the precision decision making precision farming also have other benefits.

First, the ability to reduce farming costs by optimizing seed, water and fertilizer usage due to the farmer knowing exactly which field requires attention and cultivation. This also supports the efficiency of the farmer.

Second, farmers can assess and analyze large areas with near-real time data in a short time. This eliminates the need to manually collect data which also has the potential of human error. While satellite data is very precise.

As a result of more precise decision making, reduced farming costs, increased efficiency and short time data analyzation, the future of precision farming is bright. Farmers who are using both satellite data and their agriculture knowledge have and advantage in comparison to farmers who use traditional ways of monitoring and analyzing their fields. Therefore, I predict that precision farming is going to be used on a larger scale. Besides that, I think that precision farming will be encouraged by governments because of the precise monitoring which reduces costs and it improves the field usage and eventually the environmental effects.

Do you think that precision farming is going to be used on a larger scale?

Bibliography

Jacobs, D., 2019. The Future of Satellites in Precision Agriculture. [Online] 
Available at: https://www.agribusinessglobal.com/agrochemicals/the-future-of-satellites-in-precision-agriculture/
[Accessed 8 October 2021].

Satellite Imaging Corporation, n.d. Agriculture Mapping Pivot. [Online] 
Available at: https://www.satimagingcorp.com/gallery/rapideye/agriculture-mapping-pivot/
[Accessed 8 October 2021].

The European Space Agency, n.d. Land monitoring. [Online] 
Available at: https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/user-guides/sentinel-1-sar/applications/land-monitoring
[Accessed 9 October 2021].

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Business agility and its challenges

29

September

2021

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Business agility has become more popular, and many companies strive to implement Agile
methodologies within their company because it delivers prototypes and product/service
improvements fast, it helps teams focus on customers instead of processes and documents, it
empowers team members to think creatively and effectively and it could potentially increase
productivity. However, building business agility requires a fundamental shift in an organization’s way
of working and thinking.


The first challenge arises when companies try to implement Agile methodologies, such as Scrum,
Kanban and Lean Development, without the knowledge about the underlying principles and
consequences it has for the operational business model. Therefore, it is necessary to create awareness
and a shared understanding of business agility as a whole.


Secondly, to increase business agility, systems also need to be responsive so that it can meet and
support the rapid changes. Therefore, companies face challenges around current processes and the
integration of different systems across the company (Chen, et al., 2009). In order to respond to this
challenge, companies can discover and analyze the current capabilities of the system, even when it is
not used previously or companies can create an integration platform that allows the firm to connect
systems across the company.


Thirdly, a company can face resistance from employees, which makes it hard to implement the (new)
way of working. For example, employees do not want to change because it currently works for them.
In order to improve this culture, companies need to have conversations with their employees and be
transparent about their goals, wishes and upcoming changes.


Thus, business agility comes with its challenges but when companies actively try to integrate this way
of working, it can contribute to better results.


Bibliography
Chen, D. Q., Davis, A., Boudreau, M.-C. & Cochran, J. D., 2009. Addressing Business Agility Challenges
with Enterprise Systems. [Online]
Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220500621_Addressing_Business_Agility_Challenges_wit
h_Enterprise_Systems

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