无人机推动农业现代化？这家中国农业巨头已在玉米田和葡萄园布局

一年前，总部位于北京的巨头中国化工斥资430亿美元收购了瑞士作物保护和种子生产商先正达，为中国公司最大一笔海外收购。很快中国化工就定下目标，首先要利用先正达的数字技术实现农业转型，推动投资和增长。“中国化工目光长远，一直在大幅增加研发投入，投入增幅最大的是突破性数字技术领域。”先正达首席执行官方华德告诉《财富》杂志。

先正达主要向农民提供两种数字服务，打包在AgriEdge产品中，产品里还包括一套种子和作物保护产品。第一项服务是FarmShots，是使用卫星和无人机精确定位病虫害的软件。第二项是农场管理系统，农民可以创建损益表（P＆L），追踪在玉米或大豆等领域收入支出的详细流水。卫星每天向农民发送照片，拍摄各块田地；平均一张照片可拍到数百英亩。而且照片在电脑，iPad或智能手机上可显示为“热力图”，用不同颜色标注生病和健康的作物。

卫星软件可过滤纯土壤区域，只显示作物。根据植物反射不同亮度的光，农民的屏幕上会以不同颜色体现。“健康的植物可以反射更多阳光产生鲜艳的绿色图像，具体因过滤器而异。”先正达数字农业部门主管丹·伯德特表示。相比之下，红色信号代表危险，伯德特指着一片马铃薯田表示，红色说明缺乏灌溉或肥料。黄色说明作物发育不良，例如过度施用氮肥导致玉米作物根部烧毁。

卫星图像的优势在于可在Gator 4×4上突出显示问题区域，而之前农民需要一周或更长时间才能发现。日常拍摄的照片只能显示大片区域的颜色，无法实现叶片或茎的近距离拍摄，农民也难以识别植物染上的特定疾病。为了实现图像放大，先正达将卫星与无人机技术结合。一旦热力图在农民GPS上显示问题区域，就可派遣无人机前往拍摄，发回高分辨率的树叶或秸秆图像。农民根据经验可迅速发现灰叶病等常见疾病，灰叶病是一种影响玉米生长的真菌感染，确认后农民前往现场用对应的杀真菌剂喷洒患病作物。

但有一些农害即使是经验丰富的农民也很难确认。为此，先正达率先推动无人机技术的巨大进步：可精确识别锈病、病毒或传染病的软件，并提供治疗手段的详细说明。先正达已组建七位退休植物病理学家的团队，编制囊括大多数植物病害的庞大图像库。无人机软件通过机器学习技术，将目录里的照片与无人机拍摄的树叶或茎照片匹配。预计先正达将于2019年推出首款无人机诊断病虫害的产品。对于使用无人机和卫星图像有难度的小农户，先正达将提供智能手机应用程序。农民拍摄患病作物后，应用程序发回完整的诊断和治疗计划。

FarmShots应与农场管理系统结合使用，该系统是金融工具，可以精确显示何处出现亏损以及具体原因。农场管理系统有两个主要部分。第一个是新款拖拉机软件，可跟踪农场各部门使用的种子、肥料、水、除草剂和杀虫剂的数量。先正达与拖拉机制造商约翰·迪尔、Case和纽荷兰品牌的制造商CNH Global都签有数据协议。厂商提供的拖拉机都配备类似iPad的电脑，可监测拖拉机或喷洒机使用的种子、化肥和除草剂使用情况。过去，农民仅能监控几种作物，覆盖10,000多英亩土地。“现在每块地都能当成单独的工厂。”伯德特表示。用上GPS后，拖拉机可准确显示机器种植、收获或播种的位置。机器上的传感器记录农场各区域的用料，并将数据发送至农民手上装有先正达FMS软件的损益表中。

数据详细列出哪些地块和作物产生的投资回报较高。先正达向《财富》杂志提供伊利诺伊州两处农地的损益表，解释相关工具如何应用。一个损益表中包括117英亩的大豆，只是规模更大的农场一部分。去年的种植季里，从5月播种到10月收获，该产区产量为7,000蒲式耳（1蒲式耳约为35.24升——译注），每蒲式耳售价10.24美元，总收入为71,708美元。拖拉机软件记录了三块投入，即种子、肥料和作物保护产品的使用情况。材料加上劳动力成本为29,591美元。成本大头是租金，为41,120美元。通过在损益表上列出所有数据，农民发现这块117英亩的土地只赚了998美元，基本上没赚钱。

显然，种植大豆的农民需要重大调整。毕竟市场价格没法控制。使用不同的种子或肥料提高产量没准行得通。先正达软件将该地区的每英亩大豆产量与同一农场的其他地区，以及该地区其他匿名地块比较，显示产量最高的农场使用的产品。软件还可显示类似土地的租金。

农民为每块地选择利润最高的作物至关重要。附近农场的数据显示，如果农民放弃大豆改种玉米会更好。259英亩种植玉米的土地利润数字好得多。

所以，仅看去年221,147美元收入显得规模大得多，但部分原因是农场规模超过两倍。还是看每英亩收入更有意义。尽管玉米价格为每蒲式耳3.60美元，仅为大豆价格的三分之一，玉米农户却能弥补丰欠收成差异。玉米农户每英亩销售额854美元，比大豆农户高出39.5％。每英亩收入的材料和人工成本与大豆农场基本相同。除了每英亩产量更高从而收入更多，最主要的因素是租金。两名农民每英亩租金均为350美元。但是玉米农户负担得起，种大豆的邻居却无力承受：该租金仅占玉米农户每英亩收入的41％，却占大豆农户收入的57％。玉米农户扣除所有开支后每英亩可获153美元收入，而大豆农户基本剩不下什么钱。

明细中还列出大豆农户的选择，可以向土地主声明种大豆无法支撑每英亩350美元地租，争取降低租金。也可以研究是不是因为竞争对手使用不同种子或肥料所以产量更高，从而实现盈利。或者更简单，放弃大豆改种玉米。

农民们现在越发理解套利来源来自各种利润中心的道理。“我告诉农民，要真正管好农场就要深入了解每块地的数字。”伯德特说。现在AgriEdge是先正达增长最快的业务，在121亿美元总销售额里占5亿美元。该产品现在服务于1900万英亩土地，超过美国农田总数的2％，而AgriEdge占有的市场每年增长超过25％。说起寻找处女地赚钱，大数据当属第一。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

A year ago, Bejing-based colossus ChemChina purchased crop protection and seed producer Syngenta of Switzerland for $43 billion, setting the all-time record for the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese company. ChemChina quickly targeted Syngenta’s drive to transform farming through digital technology as the paramount area for investment and growth. “ChemChina is taking the long view by substantially raising spending on R&D, and by far the biggest increases are going to groundbreaking digital technology,” Erik Fyrwald, Syngenta’s CEO, tells Fortune.

Syngenta is providing two main digital services to farmers, packaged together under a product called AgriEdge, which also includes a suite of its seed and crop protection products. The first is FarmShots, a software offering that uses satellites and drones to pinpoint sick crops in the field. The second is its Farm Management System enabling farmers to create profit and loss statements (P&L) tracking every dollar spent and earned in each field of corn or soybeans. The satellites send farmers one photo each day of individual sections of their fields; an average shot covers several hundred acres. The photos are displayed on PCs, iPads, or smartphones as “heat maps” that identify ailing and healthy sections of plants using color codes.

The satellite software filters out the areas of soil, displaying only the foliage. The amount of light the plants generate helps establish the colors displayed on the farmer’s screen. “Healthy plants reflect a lot more sunlight, and depending on the filter, produce a bright green image,” says Dan Burdett, Syngenta’s chief of digital agriculture. By contrast, a patch of red signals danger, spotting a potato field, say, that’s starved for irrigation or fertilizer. Yellow can show that plants are stunted, as from over-application of nitrogen fertilizer that burns the roots of corn crops.

The advantage of satellite images is that they spotlight problem areas that could take a farmer a week or more to pinpoint scouting the spread on a Gator 4×4. Still, the daily photos produce only broad areas of color. They don’t yield up-close shots of leaves or stalks that might help the farmer identify the specific disease afflicting the plant. To zoom in, Syngenta teams the satellite with drone technology. Once the heat map shows the problem areas on the farmer’s GPS, he can dispatch a drone that sends back high-resolution shots of the leaves or stalks. Through experience, the farmer can frequently identify such common maladies as gray leaf, a fungal infection that damages corn, and then go to the site and spray the endangered crops with the correct fungicide.

Many diseases, however, are hard for even veteran farmers to diagnose with certainty. So Syngenta is pioneering the next giant step in drone technology: Software that identifies the precise rust, virus, or infestation, and sends instructions detailing the best treatment. Today, Syngenta is deploying a team of seven retired plant pathologists to compile a giant library of images displaying most plant diseases. The drone software uses machine learning to match a photo from that catalogue with the shot of a leaf or stalk taken by the drone. Syngenta expects to launch the first product enabling drones to diagnose plant diseases in 2019. For small farmers who don’t have access to the full package of drone and satellite images, Syngenta will offer a smartphone application. The farmer takes a shot of the diseased plant, and the app sends back a full diagnosis and plan for care.

FarmShots partners with the Farm Management System, a financial tool that highlights precisely where and why farmers are making or losing money. FMS comes in two main parts. The first is new tractor software that tracks the amounts of seed, fertilizer, water, herbicides and pesticides being used in each part of the farm. Syngenta has data agreements tractor manufacturers John Deere and CNH Global, maker of Case and New Holland brands. Their tractors are equipped with an iPad-like computer that quantifies all seed, fertilizer and herbicides that a tractor or tank sprayer is applying. In the past, farmers measured those inputs only for entire properties often spread over several crops and 10,000 or more acres. “Now, we’re treating every individual field as a separate factory,” says Burdett. Using GPS, the tractor shows exactly where the machines are planting, harvesting, or seeding. Their sensors record all the materials used in each area of the farm, and send the data to farmer’s P&L, which runs on the Syngenta’s FMS software.

That data provides a detailed breakdown of which fields and crops are generating an acceptable ROI. Syngenta provided Fortune with P&Ls from fields in two Illinois farms that illustrate how these tools spotlight how these tools are used. One P&L covers a 117-acre field growing soybeans that’s a section of a much larger farm. In last year’s growing season, stretching from planting in May to harvesting in October, that field produced 7,000 bushels that it sold for $10.24 each, for total revenue of $71,708. Its tractors recorded the use of three inputs, seed, fertilizer, and crop protection products. The cost of those materials, plus labor, was $29,591. The big cost was rent, amounting to $41,120. By tabulating all of that data on his FMS P&L, the farmer learned that it had earned just $998, or virtually nothing, on those 117 acres.

Clearly, the soybean farmer needs to make big changes. He can’t influence the market price. But a solution might be raising his yield by using different seed or fertilizer. Syngenta software “benchmarks” the field’s soybean production per acre compared with other areas on the same farm, and unnamed competing spreads in the region, and also shows the products the best farms are using to achieve superior yields. It also shows rental rates for similar properties.

It’s crucial for farmers to choose the most profitable crops for each field. And the numbers from a nearby farm show that the soybean farmer might be better off replanting his field with corn. Here are the far better numbers on the 259 acres this farmer has planted with corn.

Unsurprisingly, his revenues––$221,147 last year––are much bigger, in part because his farm is more than twice as large. It’s the per acre figures that tell the story. Even though corn prices at $3.60 per bushel were one-third those of soybeans, the corn farmer more than made up for the difference in bountiful production. His sales were $854 per acre, 39.5% higher than the soybean farmer’s. Material and labor cost per dollar of revenues per acre were the same as the soybean farmer’s. Besides the superior yield that generated much bigger revenues per acre, the big factor was rent. The two farmers paid the same amount, $350 per acre. But the corn producer could afford it and his soybean neighbor couldn’t: That figure represented only 41% of the corn producer’s revenue per acre, versus 57% for the soybean farmer. The corn purveyor earned a sizable $153 per acre after all expenses, compared to a profit drought for the soybean farmer.

The breakdown arrays the soybean farmer’s best options. He can negotiate with his landlord to lower the rent, arguing that soybeans won’t sustain a charge of $350 per acre. He can examine whether the different seed or fertilizer used by rivals generate the much higher yield needed to make the field profitable. Or he can replace soybeans with corn.

Farmers are getting comfortable viewing their spreads as a patchwork of profit centers. “I tell farmers that to be better farm managers, you need to know your numbers on a field by field basis,” says Burdett. AgriEdge is now Syngenta’s fastest growing business, accounting for $500 million of its $12.1 billion in sales. The product now serves 19 million acres. That’s more than 2% of all the farmland in the U.S. and AgriEdge’s domain is growing at over 25% a year. Nothing harvests cash from the back forty like big data.