The agricultureemissions, land degradation and deforestation account for about a quarter of global emissions of greenhouse gases. greenhouse gasesIn addition, agriculture consumes about 70% of the world's fresh water, making it one of the activities that generate the greatest impact on the environment. climate changeHowever, with technological innovations developed by Microsoft it is possible to mitigate these damages.
The technology giant has developed the FarmVibes Projecta new suite of technologies focused on agriculture, from Microsoft Researchwhich aims to enable researchers, practitioners and data scientists to build a new digital technologies affordable to help farmers estimate emissions on their farm, predict climate variations, and determine the right management practices that can be cost-effective and help improve soil health.
With FarmVibesMicrosoft seeks to democratize digital tools for sustainable agriculture. This project consists of incorporating sensors in the soil to collect data on the behavior of crop fields. In addition, it uses drones and leverages access to satellite tools to get real-time information on all natural aspects that can influence the harvest, such as temperature, soil moisture and nutrient levels, plant health and more.
Expansion highlights that this platform is already being used by people such as Andrew Nelsona fifth-generation farmer from FarmingtonWashington, who is one of the pioneers in using innovations to benefit his crops.
The farmer partnered with Microsoft Research to add data to his 7,500 acres where he grows wheat, barley and lentils. With this partnership, the farmer now has the suite FarmVibes Projectwhich allows you to extract value from each data generated in the field.
The platform also features a set of tools with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help make decisions at every stage of farming, from pre-planting to post-harvest, enabling data-driven agriculture.
"The FarmVibes Project is allowing us to build the agriculture of the future. We are demonstrating the impact that technology and AI can have on agriculture," Nelson said.
How does it work?
The algorithms of FarmVibes with AI, which are housed in Microsoft AzureThey predict the ideal amounts of fertilizer and herbicide Nelson should use and where to apply them; forecast temperatures and wind speeds in his fields, informing him when and where to plant and spray; determine the ideal depth to plant seeds based on soil moisture; and tell him how different crops and practices can sequester carbon in the soil.
"For me, Project FarmVibes saves a lot of time, reduces costs and helps us control any problems we have on the farm," the farmer said.
The FarmVibes.AI suite has enabled Nelson's planting with innovations such as:
Async Fusion. This technology combines drone and satellite imagery with ground sensor data to provide information and create moisture or nutrient maps to vary the rate at which you plant seeds and apply fertilizer, which can increase yields and avoid over-fertilization.
SpaceEye. This tool uses AI to remove clouds from satellite imagery. This helps Nelson cover areas he hasn't scouted with a drone. He can then feed these images into AI models that can identify weeds, which helps him create maps to deliver herbicide only to areas that need it.
DeepMC. Innovation that uses sensor data and weather station forecasts to predict temperatures and wind speeds for the microclimate of the field. In the Nelson area, the local weather forecast predicts what conditions will be like at 10 meters above sea level.
Another Project FarmVibes solution that makes the agricultural sector of the future a reality is FarmVibes.Connectwhich Microsoft will eventually make available as open source, to bring connectivity to remote and rural locations. It provides broadband access through TV White spaces, the unused spectrum that flickers like "snow" between channels.
Currently, Nelson has a solar-powered TV blank space antenna that acts as an extension of WiFi, but can cover most of his field.
Nelson is currently testing other tools for Project FarmVibesFarmVibes.AI, in addition to FarmVibes.AI, which will be open source in the future. This includes FarmVibes.Edge, which intelligently compresses large amounts of data from drone scouting flights. It identifies areas of interest to the farmer, such as weeds in a field, and ignores other details such as roads. This allows FarmVibes.Edge to build images small enough to upload to the cloud via FarmVibes.Connect.
Together, these technologies are having a big impact on both his fields and his bank account. For example, the first year Nelson used data to guide his spraying, the amount he saved was exactly the same amount he earned. Earlier this spring, he applied this method to one-third of his fields and saved nearly 35% on one of the chemicals he uses most.
FarmVibes.AI is available in Mexico.
Microsoft announced that the tools of the FarmVibes Project are open for researchers and data scientists (and rare farmers like Nelson, who is also a software engineer) to build on to turn agricultural data into actions that help increase yields and reduce costs.
The first open source version is FarmVibes.AIwhich is now available on GitHub, FarmVibes.AI includes: Async Fusion, SpaceEye, DeepMC and the "what if" analysis tool. Other tools, such as FarmVibes.Edgewill be open source in the future.
"We want to empower the experts in the latest technology so they can leverage their knowledge and start creating tools for farmers. That's why we're making it available to the community, so they can bring together the best of earth sciences with the best of computational sciences to unlock the opportunity to contribute to sustainable agriculture," explains Ranveer Chandra, Ranveer Chandra, Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer, Agri-Food, Microsoft.
Source: Expansion