Digital Pathway to Power: The Trigger for a Deeper Relationship Between Farmers and the Supply Chain

On the farm, the complexity of decision-making has been increasing for some time, driven by factors such as growing farm sizes, changing climate, and increasing regulation. The intellectual power required to optimize many on-farm decisions has moved beyond human capacity. Now, there is a greater onus on technology to provide the intellectual power required to optimize decisions.

Report summary

Two major hurdles limit the capacity of technology to play a central role in farm decision-making. Firstly, technologies lack ability to collect data from the required number of variables, and in many cases, analysis tools do not account for different relationships between variables. Secondly, the process of collecting data, analyzing it, and acting on it is arduous and complex.

“The digital pathway to power is a template that outlines the key considerations for farmers, farm input companies, and other supply chain businesses to increase their digital decision-making capacity,” says Wes Lefroy, Analyst with Rabobank. “This includes the accurate capture and analysis of all of the variables in the physical world that influence each decision in a digital platform and then executing a decision based on that analysis. Initially, the benefits will be improved decision-making and recouped returns on investments in new technologies. Over time, we believe this will be a game changer for agricultural supply chains.

Once a foundation is laid to digitally optimize decision-making and execution, we argue that the relationship between the farmer and the supply chain will be reshaped, unlocking a whole new set of opportunities for companies and farmers. Most significantly, this will enable the role of farm inputs suppliers to expand from supplier to coach.

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  • Wesley Lefroy

    Senior Analyst – Agriculture
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  • Samuel Taylor

    Analyst - Farm Inputs
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  • Dirk Jan Kennes

    Head of RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness - Asia
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