AgriNovus Unveils Producer-Led Innovation Challenge
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAgriNovus Indiana is launching a new competition designed to fill what it calls critical gaps in farm management software. The state’s agbiosciences initiative says the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge will seek solutions to challenges presented by the massive amounts of data farm operations must sift through. The winning team will receive a $25,000 grand prize from the Purdue Foundry.
“There’s tremendous amounts of data living all across the farm, whether it be in accounting systems, whether it be in equipment, whether it be in-field data, whether it just be operational data, and today, they’re using in many cases Google Sheets. They’re using Excel to try to bring these pieces (of) disparate information together in a single place and they want to analyze it,” said AgriNovus Chief Executive Officer Mitch Frazier.
The organization says some of the goals the participating teams can reach for include developing a solution to reduce manual data entry by automating the aggregation of data from farm operating systems. They can also seek to make it possible to quickly validate data quality, such as field-level information, seed inventory, and accounting entries.
The teams can also strive to develop automated alert notifications based on farmer-identified standards and user roles, as well as ways to visualize data to quickly and easily make informed decisions.
“(Producers) need help in really taking the power of technology and bringing it to bear in their farm operation,” said Frazier. “The great news is Indiana is incredibly well-positioned to lead this. From our strength in B2B software to our strength in progressive producers, Indiana is at the forefront and we have an opportunity…to turn our ambition and our ideas into action.”
Team applications are due by September 25 and participants must present a proof of concept by December 4. All proofs of concept will be evaluated against four main criteria:
- Ability to efficiently address one or all of the producer-defined challenges
- Ability for the developed solution that integrates with current farm technologies
- Ability to clearly articulate the benefits of the solution to the farmer/producer
- Ability to develop a road map to commercialize the solution in Calendar 2021
Frazier says the competition is open to anyone from academia, agriculture, and tech can enter the competition.
AgriNovus says the winning team will be announced December 12. You can learn more about the competition and how to enter by clicking here.
During a virtual event Wednesday, Frazier said the competition seeks to streamline data analysis for producers.