Useful digital ideas are included on our myKWS platform.
Digital agriculture
Fresh boost for
Connected Seeds
We are developing digital solutions for agriculture for our strategic Connected Seeds initiative. Extensive workshops and interdisciplinary exchange underscore our commitment to research and dialog.
The objective of Connected Seeds is for us to keep on getting better and better so that we can provide our farmers with up-to-date product-specific recommendations tailored to their location. Farmers’ everyday work is the starting point for that: We want to find out what challenges agriculture is currently facing and how we need to adapt our products to those challenges.
In order to get an even better feel for current trends, the Digital Farming Solutions Team not only questioned farmers, but also discussed ideas for new digital tools in a workshop lasting several days. The qualitative interviews on the farms were conducted anonymously, and subsequent discussions helped us gain an even better understanding of the decision-making processes on the ground.
The workshop began at the end of January 2024 in Wetze with a number of farmers and representatives from agricultural machinery manufacturers (Claas), fertilizer producers (Yara), applied research (Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research), a start-up accelerator (RootCamp) and various KWS units, such as research and development or consulting. The aim was to develop new ideas and solutions in small groups. A presentation by the Fraunhofer Institute on the existing capabilities of visual computing – such as “smart” tractor windows that warn of danger – showed what new solution approaches are already possible. The participants concurred that discussing ideas across industries and subject areas was a great concept. After all, the subsequent discussions showed that everyone is facing similar challenges.
A workshop lasting several days focused on ideas for new digital tools.
Always at the cutting edge of research
“To be able to keep on offering our farmers the best and most innovative tools in the future, we must always remain at the cutting edge of research and, above all, seek dialog and mutual exchange with our customers,” explains Mark Bieri, Lead of Digital Farming Solutions. “Our products will only be accepted and used if they truly address the needs of farmers and help them in their day-to-day work.”
The second day of the workshop, which was held only for internal staff, delved deeper into the topic in order to examine whether the ideas that had been developed were feasible and what added value they would generate for KWS. Thanks to the intensive collaboration between the external guests and our colleagues, concrete ideas for further tools have already been developed and will be followed up on by the team in the coming months.
A next step? Data is also to be collected from farmers in other countries for one of the subsequent workshops so that even more daily challenges can be tackled globally. |
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