Monsanto Introducing Digital Agriculture Sensor Network

Monsanto subsidiary The Climate Corporation announced plans Wednesday to develop the agriculture industry’s first network of in-field sensors, which will provide data for the company’s Climate FieldView platform’s agronomic models.

Intended to help farmers make choices around agronomic concerns and increase yield sizes, Monsanto said the sensor network is an important step in developing its “digital ag ecosystem.”

“Our platform extension marks an evolutionary step forward for agriculture technology, representing the industry’s first centralized platform for diverse technology development from other companies,” Mark Young, chief technology officer for The Climate Corporation, said in a statement. “The extension of our platform goes beyond the cloud-to-cloud data transfer agreements we’ve made with many industry collaborators.”

Climate Corp. also said that it plans to open its software infrastructure to third-party innovators who can build on the ecosystem and provide new layers of data.

“By welcoming other ag innovators to contribute to and build upon our platform, we’re helping simplify the complex digital ag landscape for farmers and making it easier for other ag innovators to bring valuable new technologies to farmers faster,” said Young.

Monsanto has already reached out to many farmers in the United States to use the Climate platform, the Wall Street Journal reported Aug. 17, with farmers accounting for 92 million acres of American land registered to participate so far.

The company’s sensor network includes the industry’s first in-field nitrate sensor that helps farmers apply nitrogen to crops. Veris Technologies, a manufacturer of soil sensing technology, is the first partner with Climate on the platform.

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