farmer Mark Bryant raises corn, soybeans, and soft red winter wheat on 12,000 acres. But youll hardly ever see him on a tractor because that isnt how farms work anymore. Bryant spends most of his time monitoring dashboards full of data gathered from the 20 or so iPhones and five iPads he has supplied to employees who report on his acreage in real time. Using software from a Google-funded start up called Granular, Bryant analyses the data along with data gathered from aircraft, self-driving tractors, and other forms of automated and remote sensors for yield, moisture, and soil quality. Tractors themselves have been morphed into pieces of intelligent equipment, and are now much smarter. Many tractors and combines today are guided by Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite-based navigation systems. The GPS computer receives signals from earth-orbiting satellites to track each piece of equipments location and where it has gone. The system helps steer the equipment so farmers are able to monitor progress on iPads and other tablet computers in their tractor cabs. The worlds largest producer of autonomous four wheeled vehicles isnt Tesla or Google, its John Deere. The cab of one of Deeres self-driving tractors is now so full of screens and tablets that it looks like the cockpit of a jet airplane. John Deere and its competitors arent just turning out tractors, combines, and trucks that can drive themselves, they are also turning out wirelessly connected sensors that map every field as well as planting and spraying machines that can use computerized instructions to apply seed and nutrients to a field. Deere & Co. has embedded information technology in all of its farming equipment, creating an ecosystem for controlling sprayers, balers, and planters. Deere products include AutoTrac GPScontrolled assisted-steering systems, which allow equipment operators to take their hands off the wheel; JDLink, which enables machinery to automatically upload data about fields to a remote computer center and farmers to download planting or fertilizing instructions; and John Deere Machine Sync, which uses GPS data to create maps based on aerial or satellite photos to improve planting, seeding, spraying, and nutrient application. Deere now ranks among the leading companies offering tools for farmers to practice what is known as precision agriculture. Managing fields with this level of computerized precision means farmers need to use fewer loads of fertilizer, potentially saving an individual farmer tens of thousands of dollars. Some also see precision agriculture as the solution to feeding the worlds exploding population. By 2050, the worlds population is predicted to be 9.2 billion people, 34 percent higher than today. More people will have the means to purchase food that requires more land, water, and other resources to produce. To keep up with rising populations and income growth, global food production must increase by 70 percent and precision agriculture could make this possible. Farmers using fertilizer, water, and energy to run equipment more precisely are less wasteful, and this also promotes the health of the planet. Other large agricultural companies like Monsanto and Dupont are big precision agriculture players, providing data analysis and planting recommendations to farmers who use their seeds, fertilizers, and herbicides. Because adjustments in planting depth or the distance between crop rows can make big difference in crop yields, these companies want their computers to analyse the data generated during computerized planting work to show farmers how to further increase their crop output. The farmer provides data on his or her farms field boundaries, historic crop yields, and soil conditions to these companies or another agricultural data analysis company, which analyses the data along with other data it has collected about seed performance and soil types in different areas. The company doing the data analysis then sends a computer file with recommendations back to the farmer, who uploads the data into computerized planting equipment. The farmers planting equipment follows the recommendations as it plants fields. For example, the recommendations might tell an Iowa corn farmer to lower the number of seeds planted per acre or to plant more seeds per acre in specified portions of the field capable of growing more corn. The farmer might also receive advice on the exact type of seed to plant in different areas. The data analysis company monitors weather and other factors to advise farmers how to manage crops as they grow. A software application developed by Monsanto called FieldScripts takes into account variables such as the amount of sunlight and shade and variations in soil nitrogen and phosphorous content down to an area as small as a 10-meter-by-10-meter grid. Monsanto analyses the data in conjunction with the genetic properties of its seeds, combines all this information with climate predictions, and delivers precise planting instructions or scripts to iPads connected to planting equipment in the field. Tools such as FieldScripts would allow farmers to pinpoint areas that need more or less fertilizer, saving them the cost of spreading fertilizer everywhere while boosting their yields in areas that have performed more poorly and reducing the amount of excess fertilizer that enters the water tablegood for the environment. Prescriptive planting could help raise the average corn harvest to more than 200 bushels an acre from the current 160 bushels, some experts say. On a larger scale, according to Monsanto, the worlds largest seed company, data-driven planting advice to farmers could increase worldwide crop production by about $20 billion a year. So far, output from prescriptive planting systems has not achieved those spectacular levels. Is there a downside to all of this? For small farmers, the answer may be yes. The costs of investing in the new technology and vendor service fees for some of these tools such as FieldScripts can amount to more than what many small farmers can earn in extra yield from their farms. According to Sara Olson of Lux Research Inc., the problem with precision agriculture is the diminishing returns that come along with costly technologies on smaller farms. That means that only the really big farms are likely to benefit. Monsanto estimates that FieldScripts will improve yields by five to 10 bushels per acre. With corn at about $4 per bushel, thats an increase of $20 to $40 per acre. A small farm of about 500 acres could get anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 in extra revenue. Monsanto charges around $10 per acre for the service, so the farm will wind up paying about $5,000in addition to paying tens of thousands of dollars to either retrofit its existing planting equipment or buy more modern tractors that include the electronics gear that syncs the scripts provided by the Monsanto online service with the planters onboard navigation systems. Monsanto also charges an extra $15 per acre for its local climate prediction service. A small farm will most likely lose money or break even for the first two years of using a service like Field-Scripts, according to Olson. For a large farm of about 5,000 acres, FieldScripts could increase revenues by between $100,000 and $200,000. With Monsantos service costing about $50,000, that farms total profits will run between $50,000 to $150,000, more than sufficient to offset the cost of updating farm machinery. Whether a farm is big or small, the impact of FieldScripts would be minimal in good years because yields would be high regardless. The technology is likely to have a bigger impact in years when conditions arent so propitious. A spokesperson for Monsanto stated that the outcome of its prescriptive planting system is less about the size of the farm and more about the farmers technology know-how. According to Michael Cox, codirector of investment research at securities firm Piper Jaffray Cos., revenue from FieldScripts and other technology-driven products and services could account for 20 percent of Monsantos projected growth in per-share earnings by 2018. Although some farmers have embraced prescriptive planting, others are critical. Many farmers are suspicious about what Monsanto and DuPont might do with the data collected about them. Others worry about seed prices rising too much because the big companies that developed prescriptive planting technology are the same ones that sell seeds. (There has been a surge in seed prices during the past 15 years as the biggest companies increased their market share. Monsanto and DuPont now sell about 70 percent of all corn seed in the United States.) Farmers also fear that rivals could use the data to their own advantage. For instance, if nearby farmers saw crop yield information, they might rush to rent farmland, pushing land and other costs higher. Other farmers worry that Wall Street traders could use the data to make bets on futures contracts. If such bets push futurescontract prices lower early in the growing season, it might squeeze the profits farmers might lock in for their crops by selling futures. There are not yet any publicly known examples where a farmers prescriptive-planting information has been misused. Monsanto and DuPont officials say the companies have no plans to sell data gathered from farmers. Monsanto has stated that it supports industrywide standards for managing information collected from fields and that it wouldnt access the data without permission from farmers. Deere & Co., which has been working with DuPont and Dow Chemical Co. to formulate specialized seed-planting recommendations based on data from its tractors, combines, and other machinery, says it obtains consent from customers before sharing any of their data. Some farmers have discussed aggregating planting data on their own so they could decide what information to sell and at what price. Others are working with smaller technology companies that are trying to keep agricultural giants from dominating the prescriptive-planting business. Start-ups such as Farmobile LLC, Granular Inc., and Grower Information Services Cooperative are developing information systems that will enable farmers to capture data streaming from their own tractors and combines, store the data in their own remote data centers, and market the data to seed, pesticide, and equipment companies or futures traders if they so choose. Such platforms could help farmers wring larger profits from precision farming and give them more control over the information generated on their fields. CASE STUDY QUESTIONS List and describe the technologies used in this case study. [6 Marks] ii. How is information technology changing the way farmers run their business? [6 Marks] iii. How do precision agriculture systems support decision making? Identify three different decisions that can be supported. [6 Marks] iv. How helpful is precision agriculture to individual farmers and the agricultural industry? Explain your answer. [6 Marks] v. In what ways can the Government of Ghana leverage on technology in the Ghanaian context to support the Governments Planting for Food Programme? Explain your answer. [6 Marks]