Data Backbone
Tim Hamelich
News Reporter
Tim Hamelich of the Agriculture Information Network brings you the Future Farm Report.
Data problems in agriculture seem to be getting worse as more and more digital technologies are introduced on farms. Jeff Schreiner, vice president of global collaboration at Cultura Tech, believes agriculture should establish a common framework that can be customized to fit the needs of different agribusinesses.
Schreiner: “Once we create the backbone that we can use, each company can figure out how to best incorporate that data into their own processes. I think we need the same basic premise in agriculture. We don’t have to solve all of the agronomy, the detailed compliance, the greed standards, the dynamic changes in upstream trade rules and regulatory pressures. What we should do is start simple and say we’re okay with creating one sharing mechanism across the board. We’ll go along with that in some way. And the results will be kind of a by-product of that basic solution. But it’s not the exit, the access, the execution, the transaction itself that makes the difference. And I think that’s one of our challenges. I mean, I mean, you can’t count on this particular technology being better than someone’s technology down the street. I think we have to get better at planning things.”
Schreniner believes that once this data backbone is in place, it will lead to more collaboration and better outcomes.
