Ask HN: Agtech has become a data play,how can farmers commoditize/monetize it? - jelliclesfarm
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jelliclesfarm
1\. Farmers are bearing the cost of implementing tech. 2\. They own field data
but in fragmented data sets. 3\. Data is valuable when it’s collected over
contiguous fields and when in large datasets.(think 100k acres) 4\. We can’t
pass it on to the food/consumer because farmers are at bottom of supply chain
and have thin margins. 5\. How can farmers..big and small..make money from the
tech we pay for...afterall, we already know how to grow, but we need ROI and
not something that ..net net..eats into margins. 6\. Tech is too expensive
now. Investors make money. Farmers don’t. It might be right to say that Agtech
is a sector that is newly birthed and has nothing to do with agriculture.
Because returns go to tech sector and investors in it. How is it helping
farmers in $$ terms..in any meaningful sense. 7\. Tech should be easy as and
as cost effective as a pencil. Because we can make most of our
decisions..especially small farmers..with a pencil and paper.

Our problem is labour..we need physics and mechanical tech..not AI and ML and
data driven tech that first dumps our field data in silos and then give it
away to someone else to profit. It’s like Bizzaro World!

8\. Big tractor and equipment companies (yes, I am looking at you, John Deere)
won’t create affordable field because it would cannibalise their existing
product line.

Ok. What now? Perhaps this is why Ag bots and practical Agtech comes from the
EU/outside USA. I don’t know if I am right in surmising that. Thoughts?

