Bayer agronomic expertise is being combined with Microsoft’s Cloud digital farming platform Azure to form what the two companies said will lead to advanced digital solutions for agriculture and related industries.
“Like every industry, farming and the food sector are undergoing rapid digital transformation, from autonomous tractors to AI-based digital advisories, and scalable precision agriculture,” said Ravi Krishnaswamy, corporate vice president, Azure Global Industry at Microsoft. “We’re excited to partner with Bayer to accelerate this transformation and unlock even greater agricultural innovation by bringing together data-driven insights with Bayer’s agronomic expertise and the power of Microsoft Azure.”
Bayer says the Microsoft Azure deal will lead to a building of a new cloud-based set of digital tools and data science solutions for use in agriculture and adjacent industries, bringing new infrastructure and foundational capabilities to accelerate innovation, boost efficiency and support sustainability across value chains.
One of the digital platforms currently in use in the agricultural industry includes Climate FieldView which is run by Bayer. It is currently used for over 180 million farming acres in more than 20 countries to maximise productivity levels. The platform brings together all farming data into one digital space, such as trial results and crop reports, which Bayer says allows the agricultural industry to save both money and effort during their daily business. Under the agreement, Bayer will work with Microsoft to co-develop new solutions that address critical industry scenarios such as farming operations, sustainable sourcing, manufacturing, and supply chain improvement, and ESG monitoring and measurement.
The companies will do this by developing the go-forward infrastructure for digital farming solutions and data science capabilities. These new solutions and capabilities will be available to businesses – from start-ups to global enterprises – in agriculture and adjacent industries for use in their own offerings. Bayer will also migrate its digital farming core capabilities to the new infrastructure for its own customer-facing solutions. The partnership builds upon a longstanding relationship between Bayer and Microsoft, and a shared commitment to data privacy, cyber security, and customer trust.
This partnership is a significant, strategic step forward in accomplishing Bayer’s ambitious target of 100-percent digitally enabled sales in the Crop Science division by 2030 and accelerating its ability to deliver outcomes-based, digitally enabled solutions to customers. Bayer claims it is committed to setting a new standard for the industry in data-driven, digital innovation.
