The Algebra of Farming

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Digital agriculture is often referred to as the fourth agricultural revolution. If there’s one company that’s been leading the charge on that, it’s The Climate Corp. The company’s Chief Product Officer, Ranjeeta Singh, says she sees a farm as a set of complex variables.

Singh… “If you look at farming, I look at it as a branch of a matrix algebra. Again, I hope you understand what I'm coming from because a farmer must constantly juggle a set of variables like weather, soil, nutrients, etc. If he does the algebra really well, then he will optimize his yield and maximize his profit. Right. So the job of digital farming is twofold. One is to measure the variables that are going into the matrix algebra as accurately as possible as is cost effective. And the other is to relieve the farmer of the burden of processing the matrix as much as he's comfortable seeding to a machine.”

Singh says she still thinks we are in the early days of what many are calling Ag 4.0, and sees big advancements coming.

Singh… “I believe that in the future a farmer's skill is going to be a mix of technology and biologic skills rather than pure agriculture.”