Yara, a crop nutrition company, and Syngenta Group, an agriculture innovation company, have joined forces with Varda, a new ag-tech start-up founded by Yara, to accelerate the adoption of Global Field ID, a new technology standard that facilitates field data discovery and data sharing in the agriculture and food industry. Varda’s technology digitally maps agricultural land and assigns unique IDs to land plots, creating a ‘QR code for fields’ that is delivered to users via an API to create a ‘common geospatial language’ for the entire industry. In addition, the system will be used as an additional data layer within the companies’ digital farming tools, building a shared reference framework to annotate field-level data, which is expected to generate multiple benefits.
The service is currently available in France and the UK. It will be progressively released in Brazil, the US, and key European agricultural markets in 2023, with plans for further expansion in coverage and features going forward. The CEO of Varda, Davide Ceper, believes that Global Field ID is an indispensable step to break ‘data siloes’ and make information sharing simpler, reducing time spent on information aggregation, accelerating the spread of precision agriculture and the mobilization of climate finance that are necessary to drive efficiency, while preserving soils long-term health.
Yara and Syngenta have recognized the importance of interoperability and the value of a standard identification system. This allows fields to be more easily paired by users and farming tools, increasing connectivity and more straightforward data integration. In addition, both companies are known for their sustainability credentials. They are eager to engage with many more companies to establish Global Field ID as an industry standard, accelerating the transformation of food systems.
Global Field ID is a piece of the puzzle. It will support farmers and benefit the climate by improving connectivity between digital farming tools, making it more open, faster, and more efficient with the data owner’s consent. The partnership between Yara, Syngenta, and Varda will enable a more collaborative approach to field-level data and help break down data siloes. In addition, they invite other industry players to join this collaboration to improve the interoperability of systems to benefit farmers and the entire innovation ecosystem.
Image provided by Yara
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