Wave of agritech
Cooperatives such as InVivo, which brings together more than 3,000 businesses, are also taking up these challenges and offering their member farms a wide range of solutions and products, such as Smag software, which today covers around ten million hectares of French farmland and gives farmers access to cross-referenced information on their smartphone about the weather as well as optimal data on fertilizer spraying, seed, fertilization plans, and regulatory compliance. “In France, it is mainly the complicated regulatory requirements that drive the use of software, while elsewhere the technologies are developed more to optimize productivity,” explained Stéphane Marcel, Chief Digital Officer at InVivo, in a recent interview. In addition to accurate mapping of grasslands or previous watercourses, farmers must keep computerized production records, for example.
InVivo also selects seed varieties best suited to each farmer’s soils and sector, increasing productivity and quality while protecting the environment. France is an ideal country for both producing and exporting seed thanks to its versatile climate and its many years of experience in this field.
The other major challenge, the vulnerability of farms to climate change, is being addressed by researchers at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE). As an example, scientists at INRAE in Toulouse are investigating tactics for coping with extreme weather events, simulating the production of feedstuff for the next 30 to 50 years and correlating this with the weather forecasts from Météo France. Initial results indicate that there will be significant fluctuations in yields within and between 12-month periods.
Supporting the new generation
CLAAS is involved in many of these activities. “We try to inform farmers about how to deploy smart technologies and train them in the use of our machines,” explains dealer Bruno Chapon. Sometimes farms lack this expertise, especially because vocational training is mainly focused on mechanics and not on the use of digital tools, he says. In his own company, Chapon trains the students himself. He is also concerned with passing on his philosophy: “We are always on the lookout for innovations, and we know that CLAAS shares this mindset.” The latest CLAAS machines are now equipped with a remote maintenance service, for example, for quick and direct access.
To enable it to continue to shape the transformation in agriculture in the future, but also to initiate this transformation itself, CLAAS launched a comprehensive modernization and digitalization of its own tractor production in Le Mans in May this year. The “Future Factory” project will be completed in three years. After that, up to 13,000 tractors of the AXION and ARION series will be built per year in the new factory, using autonomous vehicles in production and augmented and virtual reality to visualize the entire production process at all times.
To finish with the words of Mr. Pillaud: “Change is inevitable. Agriculture needs to start reaching out to a more horizontal space, where the word cooperation regains its full meaning by including an unprecedented number of stakeholders. Agriculture needs to rediscover its basic principles by prioritizing collective and collaborative work and starting to use technologies to mobilize collective intelligence.” Citing demographics, climate change, and environmental changes as the three major challenges of this century, he says: “Agriculture in its diversity will be at the center of these challenges.”
