A new sustainable agriculture tool uses big data to help farmers reduce risk and increase yield while using water and other resources more efficiently.
CropClimate is an interactive website uses climate-, soil- and crop-modeling to link the effects of environmental conditions, weather and crop yield history and field management to develop more resilient crop production systems.
The platform offers insights that developers say will enable farmers to tailor some of their pre-planting management practices, such as crop land allocation, variety selection, planting dates and insurance selection, according to the upcoming seasonal climate forecast. It allows users to plug in various scenarios that will help them analyze the probability for highest yield.
It was developed by Guillermo Baigorria, assistant professor in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Natural Resources and department of agronomy and horticulture and a Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute faculty fellow.
The website is fully operational to support decision-making for corn and soybeans in Nebraska. Some tools are functional for the entire US, while others need to be added to certain states following the initial launch.
Farm data is increasingly becoming big business with firms including Schneider Electric, Monsanto, DuPont and Deere and Co using big data to increase agriculture yields and improve efficiency.
