At an aquafarm on Ecuador’s coast, the shrimp were famished.
Workers there toiled to provide ample nourishment to the hungry crustaceans, repeatedly maneuvering their small boats across the farm’s ponds to hand feed the underwater colony. Despite their best efforts, it wasn’t enough. The shrimp, on average, reached only 65% of their normal weight.
So the aquafarm’s operator, Omar Portugal, decided to listen to the shrimp. He dropped a hydrophone into the water to eavesdrop as they ate.
Pescanova’s aquafarm in Ecuador.
Working with Microsoft, Portugal and his team also adopted new software, added more data-gathering sensors, and floated several automated feeding stations atop the shrimp pond at the Marfrisco Aquafarm. The facility is one of numerous farms operated around the world by Nueva Pescanova, a Spain-based company specializing in the fishing, farming, processing and sale of seafood products.
Turns out, it was noisy below the pond’s surface.
The hydrophone detected chewing sounds – sounds full of data. The software translated that crunchy cacophony into algorithms. Next, those algorithms were uploaded to a platform built with Artificial Intelligence services from Microsoft, as well as Microsoft 365, Azure and Azure IoT. And that platform – dubbed Smartfarm – told the feeding stations precisely how much food to sprinkle into the water.
Smartfarm solved the underfeeding issue. The shrimp soon plumped up to a normal weight.
Healthy shrimp at Pescanova’s aquafarm.
“This was one of the problems we needed to solve using technology, but also to ensure that our farmers wouldn’t be left behind,” said Portugal, general manager of Marfrisco Aquafarm.
Smartfarm is the first solution to emerge from a 2021 collaboration agreement between Nueva Pescanova and Microsoft. The platform interprets an array of data gathered by sensors – from oxygen levels to shrimp per square meter – then provides insights and alerts to help aquafarmers maximize harvests, sustainability and animal welfare.
An automated feeding station floats atop a Pescanova shrimp pond.
By using Smartfarm’s data-fueled insights, Portugal says he made more informed decisions about how to better sustain his colony. Meanwhile, his workers are busier than ever, using their boats to check the automatic feeders and the system’s connectivity. The aquafarm has even hired additional workers.
As proof, shrimp survival rates climbed from 50% to 80%. At the same time, shrimp yields increased from 800 to 3,200 kilos per acre.
Pescanova employees review the latest data insights from their aquafarm.
That’s a crucial outcome when it comes to ongoing efforts to feed the world. Each year, global seafood consumption grows by about 4%, says Ignacio Gonzalez, CEO of Nueva Pescanova.
“It’s clear the sea cannot supply more fish,” Gonzalez says.
Pescanova aquafarmers prepare to harvest shrimp.
As a result, in 10 to 15 years, an estimated 60 percent of the world’s seafood will be grown and harvested via aquaculture, Gonzales explains. Aquaculture involves the breeding and raising of fish, shellfish and plants that are farmed in water.
“Sustainability is not just a strategy for the company,” Gonzalez says. “It is the strategy of the company.”
Together the companies aim to build tighter connections between consumers and farmers through innovative new technologies built on Microsoft’s cloud
ARDEN HILLS, Minn., and REDMOND, Wash. — July 15, 2020 — Land O’Lakes Inc. and Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday announced a multiyear strategic alliance to pioneer new innovations in agriculture and enhance the supply chain, expand sustainability practices for farmers and the food system, and close the rural broadband gap. As one of the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperatives with 150 million acres of productive cropland in its network, Land O’Lakes is deeply connected to rural America and has a unique understanding of farmers’ needs and the communities where they and their families live and work. Combined with Microsoft’s trusted cloud technologies and AI capabilities, the companies will deliver solutions that help farmers’ profit potential and adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. farms contribute more than $130 billion to the economy, emphasizing the critical role farmers play in our nation’s food supply. Yet the industry faces challenges that threaten its viability, including climate change, trade issues and an evolving workforce. With the emergence of COVID-19, the industry is increasingly facing production and supply-chain issues, and many farmers are facing new economic challenges for their family-owned businesses.
“Land O’Lakes is one of the most important food suppliers in the U.S., and our nation’s farmers and consumers rely on its ability to rapidly adapt to changing market forces through innovation,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “Through our partnership, we will apply the power of Azure and its AI capabilities to help Land O’Lakes solve some of the most pressing challenges facing the industry and bridge the divide between rural and urban communities.”
“As America’s farmers continue to deliver the world’s safest, most affordable food supply, they face an increasing number of obstacles that are beyond their control. The data-based, precision agriculture tools that we are building with Microsoft will provide the edge they need, but unreliable or nonexistent high-speed internet in rural areas keeps these tools out of reach for many. Through this alliance, we will work to address this need and help farmers remain profitable and sustainable,” said Beth Ford, president and CEO of Land O’Lakes, Inc.
Accelerating agriculture innovation
Initially, the companies will focus on developing a connected AgTech platform, built on Microsoft Azure, that will bring together Land O’Lakes’ portfolio of innovative AgTech tools, such as WinField United’s R7® Suite, Data Silo and Truterra™ Insights Engine under one unified architecture. By standardizing on Azure and harnessing the power of Azure FarmBeats, Land O’Lakes will be able to derive insights that enable intelligent agriculture solutions for farmers to be more productive with their time and resources. This includes early mitigation of plant stress to guide precisely where and when farmers should take action on their field for ideal growth conditions, maximization of yield potential by planting the right seed varieties and nutrients, optimizing fertilizer investments, and ensuring accurate output ratio to meet demand properly, all while lowering the farm carbon footprint.
Built on top of the AgTech platform, the companies will collaborate to advance an aggregator of data with Data Silo, as well as leverage Microsoft Azure and its AI capabilities and insights from WinField United Answer Plot® test fields, to support more predictable decisions for placement of crop inputs such as seeds and treatments, with the goal of increasing return on investment with the entire acre.
The companies will create a Digital Dairy solution, harnessing the power of edge computing to capture data from farms with poor internet coverage, and the power of AI to provide data-driven insights for dairy producers. This initiative will bring together multiple data streams — including weather, feed management and animal health — from sensors and third-party applications to help dairy producers improve profit potential, adopt conservation practices and reduce waste by feeding livestock only what they need and ensuring milk supply doesn’t go bad in the supply chain. Through the Digital Dairy solution, the companies will enable Traceability throughout the Land O’Lakes supply chain, providing transparency to milk, butter and cheese, ensuring consumer confidence that foods are of the highest quality and sustainably sourced. At a time when the dairy industry is stressed with changing customer demand and supply-chain disruptions, these digital tools will help producers improve efficiencies and profit potential, while helping to ensure food gets to the people who need it most.
Advancing sustainability initiatives
With the challenges of a changing climate, more extreme weather and a growing world population, Land O’Lakes and Microsoft share a commitment to sustainability and natural resources stewardship to help farm fields be both more resilient and productive for generations to come. We can help farmers improve the health and function of their farms’ soils to both produce more food and store greenhouse gas, including carbon. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that agricultural soils could hold up to 10% of human-caused emissions within 25 years. Yet, soils are largely absent from global carbon markets. As a result, farmers lack adequate information and incentives to practice regenerative agriculture to capture and store carbon.
The companies are working together to change that by developing a technology suite to help farmers improve their profit potential and generate new revenue in carbon markets. The new alliance will develop capabilities to quickly and effectively predict the carbon benefits of regenerative practices like no-till, precision nutrient management and planting of cover crops. Combining such capabilities with the real-time transparency from remote sensing and satellite data will make certification of these projects in global carbon markets easier, quicker and less expensive — ultimately maximizing the economic value for farmers.
The companies will explore integrating these new capabilities into the Truterra™ Insights Engine to create a unique soil health platform that can help farmers identify new opportunities to adopt practices to improve the quality and function of their farms’ soils, estimate the natural resource and economic benefits of those new practices, generate soil carbon credits, and connect to soil carbon markets that sell certified credits to buyers.
The platform would help unlock the potential of hundreds of millions of acres of farmland to be an effective carbon removal system and improve soil health and productivity, while providing farmers with the insights they need to make the best decisions for their farms. Markets like these may help Microsoft reach its goal to be carbon negative by 2030 and remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emitted since its founding by 2050, and help other businesses take advantage of soil carbon credits and the market to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Connecting rural America
Broadband is essential to fully participate in the modern economy. Unfortunately, more than 18 million Americans, 14 million of whom live in rural communities, don’t have access to broadband connections. Both companies are working to connect rural communities: Microsoft’s Airband Initiative has worked around the country to eliminate the rural broadband gap, and Land O’Lakes’ American Connection Project aims to close the digital divide through action and advocacy.
The companies are launching pilots that will lead to long-term programmatic solutions in rural communities. Combining Microsoft’s Airband program and specific locations within the Land O’Lakes owner network, broadband will be deployed to rural communities along with services including telehealth, educational resources and digital skilling. Both companies are also advocating for policy changes to accelerate the availability of broadband in rural communities, including broadband mapping to fully understand who has and does not have access to broadband, and federal funding in upcoming legislation.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic makes the digital divide even worse for many people. Remote work, education and healthcare are out of reach for people living in rural communities without online access. The companies are answering this immediate need for connectivity by working together to turn on free public Wi-Fi at more than 150+ locations in 19 states using a mix of technologies, including fixed wireless, and supplying internet service providers with the necessary hardware.
Land O’Lakes to transition its IT platforms to Microsoft
Through this agreement, Microsoft becomes Land O’Lakes’ strategic cloud provider, and Land O’Lakes will migrate the majority of the company’s IT infrastructure onto Microsoft Azure. The company has enabled Microsoft 365 and Teams for its workforce, empowering them with next-generation digital experience technology for increased productivity, advanced security, internal collaboration and customer engagement.
About Land O’Lakes Inc.
Land O’Lakes, Inc., one of America’s premier agribusiness and food companies, is a member-owned cooperative with industry-leading operations that span the spectrum from agricultural production to consumer foods. With 2019 annual sales of $14 billion, Land O’Lakes is one of the nation’s largest cooperatives, ranking 232 on the Fortune 500. Building on a legacy of more than 99 years of operation, Land O’Lakes today operates some of the most respected brands and businesses in agriculture and food production including Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Purina Animal Nutrition, WinField United and Truterra, LLC. The company does business in all 50 states and more than 60 countries. Land O’Lakes, Inc. corporate headquarters are located in Arden Hills, Minn.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
For more information, press only:
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]
Land O’Lakes Media Relations, Brooke Dillon, (651) 202-1670, [email protected]
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.
It’s an unusually frigid December morning in Gurugram and I’m sitting with Ranveer Chandra, chief scientist, Microsoft Azure Global, at Microsoft India’s tenth floor office. Down below, a monorail train cuts through the haze, which is now almost permanently suspended over the city. Later in the week, the region will witness the coldest day in more than a century.
“Climate change will affect small-holder farmers the most. Even a few degrees of change in temperature or untimely rainfall will create havoc in their lives,” he says.
Chandra is the founder of FarmBeats, which started as a Microsoft Research project in 2014 to enable data-driven farming and is now available as a platform for digital agriculture in the form of Azure FarmBeats.
According to the United Nations, the world population is projected to reach 9.8 billion by the year 2050, which means there will be more mouths to feed with same or lower arable land and unpredictable weather patterns due to climate change.
“We need to grow more food. But not just food, we need to grow more nutritious food without harming the planet. We need to do all this with an amount of land that isn’t increasing and water levels that are receding,” Chandra explains.
Taking the guesswork out of farming
Be it a farmer from the Great Plains region in the United States or Punjab in India, many of the farming decisions are taken by guesswork. From the amount of fertilizer to be used to when one should sow, water, and harvest the crops, some of the most critical decisions in agriculture are based on experience and instinct.
With Azure FarmBeats, Chandra has two goals. First is to remove the guesswork in agriculture and provide farmers with data-driven insights. The second phase is to make data-driven agriculture more affordable.
“Last year’s yield is not going to tell you how much nitrogen is needed in different parts of the field. Even though farmers know the benefits of data-driven agriculture, the technology didn’t exist,” Chandra tells me.
The team has already delivered on its first goal with Azure FarmBeats which is now out in preview. The system creates a digital map of a farm with drone or satellite imagery as well as a grid of sensors spread across the farm that monitor multiple parameters in the soil ranging from temperature and moisture to carbon and nitrogen levels.
Armed with all the data, farmers can get actionable insights with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) based models, which are built by partners on Azure FarmBeats. The solution is already live in some farms in the United States, where farmers are starting to see the benefits.
Building non-existent tech
Chandra’s interest in agriculture wasn’t a coincidence. While growing up in Jamshedpur in eastern India, he’d spend his summer and winter vacations at his grandparents’ village in Bihar, one of India’s most impoverished states.
“Back then, I hated agriculture like anything. The farms in the village would have no electricity, not even toilets. You had to go out in the fields even in cold weather like this,” he recalls. “But as it happens, I spent a lot of time in the village in the first 18 years of my life. I have seen extreme poverty and those images have stuck to my mind.”
“What can we, as technologists, do to improve the lives of these farmers?” he asks.
In its current avatar, Azure FarmBeats works for large farms that are spread over tens or hundreds of acres. The AI models are built to ingest satellite and drone imagery and churn out insights about the farm’s health. These are combined with data from a network of sensors buried in the soil that provide real-time information from ground zero.
Unfortunately, current technologies for getting data from the farm are too expensive for small-holder farmers like those in India to be able to afford.
“One of the things we’ve noticed is these farmers grow multiple crops in the same acre or two of land that they have. Satellite images cover thousands of acres planted with the same crop, where every acre corresponds to just tens of pixels, which are not enough to see the leaves or pests or weeds to get meaningful insights,” Chandra explains.
To solve this challenge, the FarmBeats team came up with a solution called “Tethered Eye”, which replaces drones with helium filled balloons and a smartphone with its camera facing down, flying at a height of 200 feet. The assembly is tethered on to a stick and one can have a person walk the length and breadth of the field to create an aerial map of the field using computer vision algorithms.
FARGO, N.D., and REDMOND, Wash. — July 26, 2018 — The National FFA Organization and Microsoft Corp., on Thursday announced their collaboration to bring innovative technology, science, research and entrepreneurship to the classrooms of the more than 650,000 FFA student members nationwide through an initiative known as Blue 365.
FFA members are the future of the food industry, which is relying on this generation to meet unparalleled challenges to feed a growing world population. In a modern world where the food and agriculture industries are reliant on precision agriculture, big data, cloud technology, robotic systems, advanced communications and other sophisticated technologies, Blue 365 will serve as a catalyst for evolving sustainability, innovative efficiency and preparing the future leaders who will solve the world’s critical agricultural challenges. At an event in Fargo today, National FFA CEO Mark Poeschl and Microsoft’s Brad Smith and Mary Snapp were joined by North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, USDA State Director Clare Carlson, and North Dakota State FFA President Brianna Maddock.
“Today’s FFA members are our future industry leaders,” Poeschl said. “The future relies on connecting diversity of innovational approach, solutions-orientation and cutting-edge technology. We are excited that Microsoft shares our vision of Blue 365. Through agricultural education and FFA, our members are evolving their skill sets for the 21st century demands; they will be the change in our industry. Blue 365 can be the spark needed to create the next big idea in agriculture.”
Blue 365 will be unveiled in Indianapolis, Indiana, this October at the 91st National FFA Convention & Expo, the nation’s largest student convention. With the vision and commitment of title sponsors Microsoft and AgriNovus Indiana, The Blue Room, a 17,000-square-foot interactive space, will showcase the cutting-edge technology, research and innovation happening across the spectrum. Through experiential learning and specific focus on the most critical challenges facing our communities — from respecting the planet to the urgent matter of feeding the world — The Blue Room experience serves to inspire and equip students to activate their potential.
“While digital technology is transforming every part of the American economy, not everyone is acquiring the skills to thrive,” said Brad Smith, president, Microsoft. “As a company, we’re focused on ensuring everyone, regardless of their geography or circumstance, has access to the digital skills they need to compete and prosper. And our partnership with the National FFA will expand this work, helping students across the country prepare for digital jobs and the farms of the future.”
Microsoft’s participation in Blue 365 is part of its commitment to helping people who may be impacted by technological advances and builds on its TechSpark initiative launched last year. TechSpark is a civic program fostering greater opportunity and job creation in smaller metropolitan areas. The initiative is in six regions, including in North Dakota, and focuses on five program areas: digital transformation, digital skills and computer science education, career pathways, rural broadband connectivity, and support for nonprofits.
“Technology is changing every job, every industry and every organization, and agriculture is no exception,” Burgum said. “Today’s announcement from Microsoft and FFA will provide a valuable tool for our educators as they work to equip students with the skills necessary to succeed in a 21st century economy. Given FFA’s long and storied history in North Dakota and Microsoft’s commitment to investing in the future of our young people, Blue 365’s potential to support student learning is undeniable.”
“FFA students across America will lead the food and agriculture industry into the future. They must have opportunities to integrate digital skills into both their classroom studies and project-based learning,” said Mary Snapp, corporate vice president and lead for Microsoft Philanthropies. “Our partnership will help ensure that curriculum is up to date so that these young leaders can use technology to drive innovation in farms of the future, sustain and renew our planet, and enrich their communities.
The National FFA Organization provides leadership, personal growth and career success training through agricultural education to 653,359 student members who belong to one of 8,568 local FFA chapters throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
About National FFA Organization
The National FFA Organization is a national youth organization of 653,359 student members as part of 8,568 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The FFA mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. The National FFA Organization operates under a federal charter granted by the 81st United States Congress and it is an integral part of public instruction in agriculture. The U.S. Department of Education provides leadership and helps set direction for FFA as a service to state and local agricultural education programs. For more, visit the National FFA Organization online at FFA.org and on Facebook, Twitter and the official National FFA Organization blog.
About National FFA Foundation
The National FFA Foundation builds partnerships with industry, education, government, other foundations and individuals to secure financial resources that recognize FFA member achievements, develop student leaders and support the future of agricultural education. Governed by a 19-member board of trustees composed of educators, business leaders, individual donors and FFA Alumni, the foundation is a separately registered nonprofit organization. About 82 percent of every dollar received by the foundation supports FFA members and agricultural education opportunities. For more, visit FFA.org/Give.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
For more information, press only:
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777,
Kristy Meyer, National FFA Organization, (800) 293-2387, [email protected]
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.
