Vodafone Business takes on precision agriculture
Vodafone Business announced that it piloting a new service that could accelerate the digitization of farming across Europe by providing farmers with a mobile app linked to agricultural IoT sensors.
Five European pilot farms in Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain are currently testing the service, dubbed MyFarmWeb, which is already being used by 7,200 farmers in the United States, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
The MyFarmWeb cloud-based platform allows farmers to store, visualize and view information gathered via agricultural Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and other data sources in the field. The platform collects farm data to support decision making for better soil and crop health, effective water use, and precision fertilizer and pesticide application. This helps improve farm productivity and optimizes farming practices and as a result can reduce greenhouse gases, Vodafone said.
The company also noted that these five pilot farms in Europe will provide the platform with valuable region-specific data points to calibrate the data within MyFarmWeb to local farming practices and regional regulations. The five selected farms are: Dairygold in Ireland, Llusar and Grima both based in Spain, Laporta in Italy and Agrar-Betriebsgemeinschaft Leine-Solling in Germany.
Vinod Kumar, Vodafone Business CEO said: “MyFarmWeb is a great example of how digital technologies, and the access to data they provide, can help businesses become more efficient and greener. Together, we can accelerate the European Union’s efforts to make the agricultural sector more resilient and inclusive through the use of digital tools, whilst ensuring that sustainability doesn’t come at the expense of profitability.”
Moises Infante, Technical Manager at SAT Marigomez farm- a supplier of Llusar, in Spain, said: “MyFarmWeb will enable our farm to be fit for the future and has proven to be a real game changer already. Using the platform, we can collate data from multiple sources, like soil quality, nutrient concentrations, and yield, and turn it into commercially workable information, ensuring we make faster and more informed decisions, maximizing efficiency while also reducing waste and environmental impact. This is just the start for our farm and in the future MyFarmWeb will allow us to use more productive and sustainable farming practices, which is becoming increasingly important to comply with the changing legislation.”
Sean O’Sullivan of Elm Hill Farm (Dairygold), in Ireland said: “The introduction of MyFarmWeb has saved us a lot of time and made the running of the farm far more economical. MyFarmWeb installed an IoT-enabled weather station, which gives me the benefit of knowing the correct time to spray and fertilize the fields without the need to drive to the farm to establish the weather conditions. The data that MyFarmWeb provides has the potential to completely transform how we work here at Elm Hill Farm.”
