The 4.0 revolution in the field is real: there are already 26 million devices connected in the farming and cattle raising sector worldwide. It is estimated that by 2020 there will be 97 million, according to IT sector consultancy Machina Research. Tractors, seed drills, spraying machines, harvesters, and other machines are highly automated with sensors, something that a short time ago was considered science fiction. Resources like drones, remote sensing, precision agriculture and Big Data are increasingly present in farming management. New possibilities arise and, to take advantage of all the technology’s potential on the field, a new professional profile is emerging: more open and connected to digital tools.

Agribusiness is also included in this scenario. That is what we call today Agriculture 4.0. What does that mean? It means that the sector will increasingly use a set of digital technologies, connected by software, systems, sensors, and teams to optimize farming production in all phases. From biotechnology to the fastest connection, these tools apply to the whole production cycle, favoring agriculture sustainability and efficiency.

That is why, not only in Latin America but also worldwide, modern farms do not look like the properties of 50 years ago. Formerly, using technology in the field was a synonym to improved seeds and more modern agrochemicals, today it means counting on apps, precision agriculture, drones, Internet of Things and Big Data… the list keeps on growing! We have software capable of predicting rain; detect whether the wind is appropriate for phytosanitary applications, or whether the operator is correctly managing machines. Moreover, drones help us not only in generating air images, making possible topographic processing, agronomic analyses, count of animals and map production but also in the assertive application of agrochemicals.

A subsidiary of Bayer, The Climate Corporation’s FieldView™ platform provides farmers with one comprehensive, connected suite of digital tools to help them optimize resources and maximize yield. FieldView™ brings together seamless field data collection, advanced agronomic modeling, and local weather monitoring into simple mobile and web software solutions giving farmers a deeper understanding of their fields so they can make more informed operating decisions.

We can say that agribusiness is experiencing a true revolution. And, to keep up with this modernization process, a new profile of the field professional arises, increasingly younger and acquainted with the technology. In the agriculture 4.0 era, the professional has new skills such as the ability to assume risks, a positive attitude to incorporate digital resources, a calling for productivity and motivation to innovate and undertake.

In the European Union, for example, approximately 8% of farmers are below 35 years old. In Latin America, Argentina follows this trend: 45% of farmers are below 44 years old. Besides, 65% of them work with machines equipped with digital instruments and over 51% use data for decision-making. In Brazil, since 2013, the farmer is increasingly young, with an average of 46.5 years old, and around 61% of them already count on smartphones and other devices connected to the internet to work.

The agronomist Annemarie Ruser, 25 years old, Hans Heinrich Ruser’s daughter, is an example of this new generation. She works with precision agriculture and has recently adopted drones to monitor her family farm’s plantations, located in the Paraguay Southeast region. Distant 60 km from it, Rodolfo Lovera, technical director at Santa Librada Group, one of the main grain producers in Paraguay, also applies his experience as an agronomist and his passion for technology to monitor pests with drones and apps based on satellite images. This rendered him a productivity jump, from 3 thousand kg of soy per hectare in 1980 to 6 thousand kg per hectare nowadays.

Agriculture 4.0 is, above all, agriculture made beyond farm gates. This connection is literally placing the field at levels that our parents could never imagine. The agro digital revolution is already happening. Are you ready to be part of it?