According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, food production must increase by 60% to feed the Earth’s growing population which is expected to hit 9 billion by 2050. Ninety percent of the growth in crop production is expected to come from higher yields on existing farm land requiring farmers to gain additional efficiencies from their land. The agriculture industry is already highly dependent on technology and is not slow to adopt new hardware and software if it can help improve yields. Current forms of agriculture technology, often referred to as “precision agriculture,” help farmers determine where and what to plant on their land with a level of accuracy that was not possible ten years ago. The next step is to move from precision agriculture to predictive agriculture and “Big Data” will be the main driver of this change.

1. AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY
Roger Royse
Royse Law Firm, PC
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2. Need for Agriculture Technology
• The Earth’s population is expected to reach 9
billion by 2050
• The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture
Organization predicts that food production
must increase by 60% to meet increasing
demand
• 90% of the growth in crop production needs
to come from higher yields on existing farm
land

3. Funding Agriculture Technology
• The agriculture technology market is still
immature, with most deals done at the seed
stage
• In 2012, there was an estimated $27 billion of
venture capital investment in the United
States
– Of this, agriculture technology companies raised about
$100 million resulting from 40 deals
– While a majority of U.S. venture capital deals take place
in Silicon Valley, only around 20% of agriculture
technology deals take place there, with the rest
occurring closer to big agriculture markets

4. Precision Agriculture
• Allows farmers to determine
when, where, and what to plant with a level
of accuracy not previously possible
– Today, precision agriculture provides:
• Satellite navigation and guidance
• Monitoring and mapping of yields
• Live soil information through sensors installed in
vehicles

5. The Future: Big Data
• Companies are now collecting vast amounts of
data to improve precision agriculture and
predict farming trends
• Data can be uploaded to the cloud in real-time
providing farmers with instant information on
their land and crops
• Climate Corp., recently acquired by Monsanto
Company for $950 million, uses Big Data to
generate trillions of data points to predict daily
patterns and insure farmers against the weather
scenarios of their choice

6. Legal Issues: Data Ownership and Privacy
Data Ownership:
• The American Farm Bureau Federation (“AFBF”) warned that
companies collecting data from farmers may use the data to their
own commercial advantage in ways not foreseen by farmers
– The AFBF advised farmers to consider their data ownership rights
when agreeing to contracts which store data in the cloud
Privacy:
• Environmental activist groups are demanding information and
transparency from farmers and with data in the cloud there is
now more information for them to request
– In 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency controversially
released personal information on farmers following a Freedom of
Information Act request from environmental groups
• Data could be sensitive and farmers may want to keep some
information out of the public eye e.g. pesticide use

7. The Future: Drone Technology
• Drones could revolutionize farming through:
– Mass data collection
– Surveying land and planting seeds
– Surgical precision in the use of
pesticides, fertilizer, and water
• Brazil and Japan already use drones in
agriculture, however commercial use of drones is still
prohibited in the U.S.
• Safety and privacy concerns that affect urban areas
may not apply to farms
– However, farmers are concerned that drones will be used
by environmental groups to spy on and monitor their
operations

8. Concluding Thoughts
• More communication is needed between
technology start-ups, farmers, and venture
capital firms for further advancement
• Growth and technology in this industry is
promising as farmers strive to meet the
challenges of feeding the Earth’s increasing
population

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