Community Management
Smart Community
We organise the Ecosystem into Smart Communities. This allows us to model all the stakeholders, their roles, their relationships, and the Assets they own.
Integrated business rules introduce “intelligence”, allowing governance models to be adopted. The Ecosystem will be built around the following Members:-
Co-Operatives
Farming co-operatives play a vital role in engaging the farmers. They offer a quick way to engage farmers whilst playing a vital communication role.
Farmers
Farmers and farms are the primary interaction of the Ecosystem. Every Farmer who onboards the Ecosystem will be able to map their Farm boundaries creating a digital representation in the Ecosystem.
Extension Workers
Offer a vital support role in the transformation of Crop production. The Ecosystem will help them organise Farms into local clusters which can all be aided by extension workers. The Ecosystem will be an invaluable training asset to support technology adoption.
Aggregators
Both national and international organisations that receive the crops can all be valuable Members of the Ecosystem. As yields are monitored, allowing Aggregators to gain insight into the potential and probable availability of crops.
Suppliers
We will be promoting products for sale through a number of different suppliers. The products we will promote will be mainly those chosen within the Crop Production Models
Service Providers
Organisations that provide services to Farmers and other Stakeholders. These might include companies that offer financial services or companies that aggregate products.
Data Services
Data Driven Agriculture
Data is the fuel which drives Digital Ecosystems and allows for unprecedented insight to drive operational optimisation of customer experience.
Automatic Insight
IoT, satellite and drone data will provide insight into crop development. Combined sensor and satellite data provide regular updates on soil states and soil moisture. Drone-based AI can help detect problems earlier while continually updating forecasted yields.
Weather Integration
Integration into the World Meteorological Office unified data policy means that not only will the Ecosystem contribute to this policy but also allow tailored weather data to be presented to members.
Access to financial products
Members of the Ecosystem can provide Financial Institutions with what the farmers own, what their performance has been in the past and what the forecasted future output is, helping manage risk and allowing Farmers to access financial services which previously they could not.
Crop Production Models
The future of farming
Crop Production Models (CPMs) are fundamental in the operation of the Ecosystem. The Crop Models will become the primary operational model for producing crops. The Crop models will follow International guidelines, where appropriate, ensuring all markets are open to the producers.
Based on International Standards
When developing the CPMs, we will be adopting International Standards where applicable. An example of this would be our commitment to follow the Soy Round Table guidelines for our production model.
Integrated Digital Workbook
Once a farmer chooses the Crop to be planted, a digital workbook will be created for all the activities required. From placing the orders for the Inputs through to integration with Satellite data and continual calculation of expected yield. All tasks will be notified to the Farmer, and supporting documentation will be on hand at all times.
Integration with Technical Serivces
The Ecosystem supports a broad range of technologies. These include Internet of Things sensors, Drone technologies, which can be used for many functions including Soil and field analysis, weed identification, crop health assessment and crop monitoring.
Predicting and Monitoring yield
Estimating and monitoring yields is a key benefit of the Ecosystem. The estimation of yield can be continually updated by the Data from the various technologies, and this information can be aggregated across a broad range of groupings.
Technical Services
Broad Range of Technical Services
The Ecosystem includes a broad range of technologies whose function is to aid the operations of Crop Production Models. These include:-
Soil Analysis
As a farm is on-boarded to the Ecosystem soil samples can be taken to establish the state of the soil. These samples can be retaken to monitor the state and drone technology can also be used for this.
Internet of Things
The Internet of Things helps farmers maximise yields with minimum resources. Below and above-ground sensors can determine when more downforce is needed, determine when a crop is thirsty, detect disease before lesions even appear on the leaves, and guide where chemicals need applying.
Satellite Imagery
Satellite imagery can provide valuable information about crops and their harvested area. This can include the development of the crop to continually assess yield and also identify problems with field conditions, such as moisture and pest detection.
Drone Technology
Drone technology is having a profound effect on farming. The technology provides a real insight into the activities in a specific location, including:-
- Crop Surveillance
- Field monitoring, planting and seeding
- Spray treatment
- Drone AI
- Livestock Management
Where appropriate, these activities are organised as part of a Crop Production Model
Weather Stations
Weather has a real impact on crop growth. Farmers also use temperature, humidity, and other factors to predict pest infestations and diseases so they can proactively plan sowing, harvesting, and protection accordingly. Here are the main data types weather stations provide:
- Temperature
You can accurately track temperature changes over a day, week, season, or year with a weather station based on your location.
- Rainfall
Thanks to built-in pulses, you can measure how much rain has fallen over a specified period and use rain forecasts to store and manage water.
- Wind Speed and Direction
Weather stations help urban farmers in Australia predict cyclones, floods, and strong winds more accurately than meteorological departments.
- Humidity
Humidity is one of the most important factors affecting crop growth and indicates upcoming weather, mould and bacteria growth, and pest infestations.
- Soil Moisture
Soil moisture monitoring is an additional feature.
Exemplar Farms
The proving ground
The Exemplar farms can be considered as a centre of excellence for agriculture and the practical R&D element of the Ecosystem. The crop models will be developed on the model farms and provide working examples of these. From here it is envisaged that training and knowledge dissemination will occur. They can be considered a Social Beacon and will help with Community engagement whenever a new market is entered into.
Actual Crop Models
Model farms will be used to implement Crop Production Models in various locations. We will also use and introduce new technologies on Exemplar farms to ensure the technologies provide real value for money.
Rotating and Intercropping
The Ecosystem promotes sustainable farming in an environmentally friendly manner. As we develop the crop models, we will be considering the best approach to crop rotating and ensuring complementary crops follow each other in a long-term planting scheme.
We will also advocate and practice Intercropping and provide evidence as to the benefits of this.
Storage Capabilities
The Exemplar farms will provide storage capabilities to help support the logistics of providing inputs and for the off-take of products. These again will be integrated into the Production crop models, automating supply where possible and providing a QA function to meet contracted supply.
Infrastructure Products
The Exemplar farms will provide working examples of technology that can improve farms. We envisage all exemplar farms will include weather stations, all of which will take into account the World Meteorological data exchange policies and feed into the global requirement for weather data.
We will also implement Water usage strategies, including solar-powered irrigation systems and storage solutions.
Animal Husbandry
Livestock Management
Allows birth to death processes to be organised, captured and reported on. The Ecosystem allows fields and pastures to be geographically recorded and movements of herds can be monitored to and from the pastures.
Medication and Vet Log
Allows all the treatments, batches, numbers etc to be recorded. The module links into the Supply Chain solution to help organise just-in-time delivery across a shared Medicine cupboard.
Herd Registration
Allows herds to be created and to track their movements. We can track individual cattle along with the movement between the herds.
Drone Technology for Livestock Management
We can use Drone technology to manage large herds of livestock. The drones can have high-resolution infrared cameras attached, which can detect a diseased animal by analysing their heat signatures. The diseased animal can then be separated from the herd, and early treatment can be administered.
Livestock Insight
The reports and dashboards include the ability to get full reporting on Births, Deaths, Locations & Transfers. This information can be provided at an aggregated level on the Dashboards.
Also included will be reporting on Medications and Health tests.
Input Supply
Safe and cost effective supply of feeds
The crop models will determine what inputs will be needed by farmers to follow the Crop Model. These products can be sourced via the Ecosystem.
Integration of Crop Models
The Crop Production models use optimum seed choices and, combined with the soil data, will determine the optimum fertiliser blend. When a Crop Production is chosen, the requirements for the area of the crop will automatically determine the input requirements and can raise orders through the AgriDex capability.
Combine requirements for future planning
Farmers can group together to maximise purchasing power, this aggregation can be achieved on a significant scale. By forward planning, the Crop Production requirements can be presented to suppliers in a timely manner and Agri Dex will help organise deliveries to aggregated delivery locations.
Aggregation Services
Organising Aggregators
The Community model allows the farmers to aggregate outputs together to create an aggregated position for off-takers ( Aggregators) to take a position on. The inherent flexibility of digital systems means these relationships can be managed easily and modelled for optimum value.
Multiple forms of Aggregation
Through the AgriDex Focal Point we can support different forms of aggregation, these include:-
- Spot Market Transactions
- Collective Transactions
- Contracted Sales