The Agtech Industry Needs More Holistic Data Solutions

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

A farm is a complex system and technologies that focus on only one data point, say a moisture sensor or soil sensor, won’t provide enough information for management decisions. That’s why The Yield’s CEO Ros Harvey sees the agtech industry maturing into offering more holistic data solutions.

Harvey… “You know, a lot of times the experience doesn't live up to the promise and you end up with a whole lot of tech sitting in sheds on the farms all over the world. And I think what we're seeing now is a maturing of that and understanding that, you know, we need holistic data solutions. That farms aren't a series of single decisions, they're actually a system. And that you need to create technology that both has open architecture but solves for these issues holistically and puts data to work up and down the value chain. So I'm optimistic in the sense that I think there's a maturing of the sector. I think we still have a tendency to be technology led rather than grower led. And I think that the companies that succeed are the ones who actually do it the other way around. So, what is it that we're trying to solve?”

The Yield was started in Australia and has recently established a presence in the U.S., working with large specialty crop growers and food companies.