Announcing Microsoft Azure Data Manager for Agriculture: Accelerating Innovation Across the Entire Agricultural Value Chain

By: Kees Hertog, General Manager, Global Industry Product Marketing.

The agricultural industry is at a turning point. Although food may seem plentiful in many regions of the world, the number of hungry people does exist Keep increasing in the past nine years. To feed a growing population sustainably and efficiently, the way we produce food must change. From the soil – where improvements in farming practices can mitigate climate change to the shelves – where customers are looking for products with the lowest carbon footprint – agriculture and the food value chain are ripe for innovation.

So we are pleased to announce that Microsoft Azure Data Manager for Agriculture Now available in preview. At Microsoft, we’ve always understood that scaling innovation across the industry starts with data. What started b FarmBeats Projectan ambitious initiative to collect and transform agricultural data, has evolved into a commercial solution.

Azure Data Manager extends to farming Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform With industry-specific data connectors and capabilities to connect agricultural data from disparate sources, allowing organizations to leverage high-quality datasets and accelerate the development of digital agricultural solutions. Instead of allocating resources to manage unstructured data, customers and partners can focus on product innovation with the ability to think about data that is abundant and immediately available. In addition, organizations can use internal, external or intelligent data platform services to accelerate the development of business intelligence and analytics solutions. With an ecosystem of partners building solutions on top of Azure Data Manager, this is another step towards the connected and collaborative farming industry.

Accelerate innovation through data

With so much relevant agricultural data being generated on farms — from sensors in the ground to satellites orbiting the planet — not many organizations have the resources to use it effectively. Azure Data Manager for Agriculture helps break down data silos, enabling organizations to develop solutions that provide predictive and educational insights into land health, changing weather patterns, waste control, carbon sequestration, and more.

For example, I used Bayer Azure Data Manager for farming to move from a self-managed data state to a Microsoft-managed model. Bayer FieldView uses data from satellites and weather sources from Azure Data Manager to generate insights into potential factors that may limit production in farmers’ fields. In addition, Bayer brings its industry-leading expertise to enterprise customers through AgPowered Services, a suite of solutions that ingest data from Azure Data Manager to provide timely information on crop health, weather forecasting, crop growth, yields, and more.

Bayer not only runs its solutions on Azure Data Manager for agriculture, but also brings decades of agricultural experience to help Develop a robust Azure Data Manager. Thank us Strategic alliancewe leverage Bayer insights—plus connectors, models, transformations, and data workflows—to articulate how we can strengthen Azure Data Manager and help organizations address today’s agricultural challenges.

“Azure Data Manager for Agriculture is an important step in accelerating the impact of big data and agriculture. With high-quality data to drive insights, we hope to see a more transparent and predictable value chain in which value is shared with producers.” –Jeremy Williams, director of climate and digital agriculture at Bayer Crop Science.

Building a more sustainable future

Feeding a growing global population and building a healthier world can only be done by practicing sustainability from farm to fork. With Azure Data Manager for Agriculture, agricultural input providers can accelerate solutions that enable farmers to adopt more sustainable practices. For example, Azure Data Manager for Agriculture is a core component of Land O’Lakes’ digital offerings, including the Truterra sustainability tool. Truterra provides information on different farming practices that affect water, nitrogen and carbon on the farm and allows farmers to control carbon sequestration from their land and participate in carbon markets.

through our cooperation [con Microsoft]We provide farmers with new services to improve their operations and identify their customers’ data, in order to improve sustainability. ” –Teddy Bekele, Chief Technology Officer, Land O’Lakes, Inc.

Developing trust rooted in transparency

Consumers and investors alike are pressing companies to be transparent about farming and sustainability practices. With a clearer view of farm operations, companies can take an important step in building trust with investors and customers. Azure Data Manager for Agriculture enables organizations to replace self-reported data with higher-quality agricultural data to provide more accurate information to their stakeholders, helping companies build brand trust through ethically produced products and sustainability. As security and privacy concerns increase, organizations can be confident that their data will be stored in the most reliable cloud, designed to meet the most stringent security and compliance requirements.

Microsoft’s commitment to sustainability

Azure Data Manager for Agriculture is just one part of Microsoft’s commitment to accelerating progress towards a more sustainable planet. Through his next initiative, Project FarmVibes, Microsoft Research Develops AI models and toolkits available at Microsoft is open source To promote agricultural innovation in the scientific community in the fields of academia and business.

Microsoft also launched Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, which enables organizations to accelerate progress toward sustainability and business growth by combining a growing set of environmental, social and governance (ESG) capabilities from Microsoft and our global ecosystem of partners. Together, we keep sustainability at the heart of our offering and strive to enable organizations to adopt more renewable and sustainable farming practices.

Learn more and transform your operations today

If you are interested in using Azure Data Manager for Agriculture in your business, you can Register here. Azure Data Manager for Agriculture requires registration and is currently only available to authorized customers and partners during the preview period.

Tags: product development, technology