Data is the fundamental building block of smart farming, whether the data comes from a soil sample or a satellite correction signal.
For example,
data points collected can high both spatial And temporal variability within a field.
Many factors can contribute to this variability; understanding the effect each factor has can only be measured and managed using statistical analysis of the data.
Everyday farming applications are staring to move into the cloud, with the aim of delivering benefits in terms of data access, synchronization, storage and even cost to the farmer means that apps can be used to cache data offline until it can be synchronized; data need no longer be tied to a single computer in a single location.
Partnerships are vital to the value chain, since not even the largest suppliers can fulfil all the needs of the customer by themselves and must cooperate to achieve this.
More complex partnerships are being forged involving cross sector collaboration, with each partner bringing different skills and experience. Partner organisations may be large or small, local or international.