Cutting-edge capabilities
Connecting digital farming and artificial intelligence in the field with Cropwise AI
Given the ever-growing complexity of trying to grow more food than ever while using fewer resources, farmers need the best tools to help guide their decisions.
What if farmers everywhere could carry with them their own personal digital agronomist, able to answer their questions and provide actionable insights in a tailored and accessible way?
This is the breakthrough of Cropwise AI.
The Cropwise platform is a connected ecosystem of apps and digital services that allows farmers to do everything from getting advice on seed selection and information on the best time to apply crop protection, to ways of maximizing their prices when they take a commodity to market.
The Cropwise suite has become an essential partner for farmers globally. Currently, around 70 million hectares of land – an area roughly twice the size of Germany – are connected to one of the various Cropwise apps.
Now, with the addition of Cropwise AI, large language models can unlock new insights, helping farmers use their data in smarter, more effective ways.
Justin Welch, Head of Digital Agronomy for Syngenta, explains: “Farmers need new tools and new insights to help guide their decisions. Cropwise AI is a constantly improving tool to help farmers take on their biggest challenges and bring data-driven insights to their operations.”
Thanks to the popularity of the wider Cropwise ecosystem, Syngenta has access to a huge array of sophisticated data, covering everything from weather patterns and disease symptoms, to satellite imagery stretching back 20 years.
But that’s not all - as Syngenta is a leader in agricultural research, Cropwise also has access to the insights from observations on crop growth stages and historical yield data from on-farm trials. All of this contributes to a powerful data set and makes Cropwise AI a powerful digital agricultural expert.
So, what can Cropwise AI do?
Justin Welch, Head of Digital Agronomy for Syngenta.
Justin Welch, Head of Digital Agronomy for Syngenta.
Chatting in the fields
Mitch Montgomery, Strategic Field Agronomist for Syngenta.
Mitch Montgomery, Strategic Field Agronomist for Syngenta.
Access to more detailed information helps agronomy advisors work more closely with farmers to make better, more efficient, decisions.
Access to more detailed information helps agronomy advisors work more closely with farmers to make better, more efficient, decisions.
Mitch Montgomery uses the app in his role as a Syngenta Strategic Field Agronomist, working with farmers across Iowa in the US to give advice and support on the practical challenges they face.
Mitch explains: “Our job is to help farmers with planning so they can be as effective as possible. As the season progresses, we provide timely agronomic advice on things like stressors, and opportunities, as well as helping them mitigate risk.”
What stands out to Mitch about Cropwise AI is the degree to which it encourages self-reflection.
He says: “You might want to know what the best hybrid for a zip code with wet soil is, but the AI will ask what aspect you are most concerned with – disease tolerance, standability or other conditions? This is so valuable because it helps me refine my own thinking without even asking.“
Over the last year, Cropwise AI has, like so much AI technology, seen rapid acceleration in its capabilities. “Like any other tool it depends on the comfort level of the user – as we refine it, it’s only going to get better and easier to pick up,” says Mitch.
It can cover everything from simple questions of asking it what the specific disease score for a specific hybrid is, to seamlessly getting into specific placement data and the strengths or weaknesses of various hybrids.
Devin Merrit is a Strategic Farm Partner, supporting farmers across Southern Iowa and like Mitch, has been testing out what Cropwise AI can do. “I’ve got my own farm, and I use it to come up with plans for my own operations,” he says.
Devin Merrit, Strategic Farm Partner.
Devin Merrit, Strategic Farm Partner.
For Devin, the big advantage that Cropwise AI offers are the efficiency gains it offers. He says: “Thanks to the insights from Cropwise AI we can get scouting reports and prepare for disease pressure before it gets super intensive, or for a customer with application issues, by using our app they can monitor fields with satellite imagery that can pick things up that you’d miss with the eye.”
As Devin says: “The more I use it, and the more farmers see the benefits, the more they ask questions about what this tool could do for them. As a result, efficiency with the customer has skyrocketed.”
While the app is currently being used by commercial teams and agronomists across North America, it will soon be rolled out to farmers later this year.
Ryan Vogelzang, GHX and Digital Agronomy Product Manager, has also been involved in testing the Cropwise AI chatbot on the ground. “It’s been really well received – people have been excited about what it can do, and the ways it can scale in the future,” he says.
The benefits of Cropwise AI aren’t just in the information it can provide, but the way it complements and supports agronomic experts in understanding what farmers need.
Cropwise AI generates detailed recommendations for farmers up to five times faster than before.
Cropwise AI generates detailed recommendations for farmers up to five times faster than before.
Ryan says over the last year Cropwise AI has developed more personalized insights. “Now, I don’t just ask it to tell me about a certain disease, but I can get information about why that disease is a risk for my farm and what to do about it.”
When agronomy advisors have access to this kind of information, it helps them work more closely with farmers and make better, more efficient decisions.
Ryan is also excited about the possibilities of Cropwise AI in the future. “Could AI be the business enabler for farmers? We could bring in computational agronomy, tracking yield predictions, pest presence, and weather patterns week by week,” he says.
As we look to feed a growing population using fewer resources, Cropwise AI stands at the forefront of this challenge, ushering in a new era of smart, data-driven farming. With this new technology, the path to higher yields and sustainable farming isn't just within reach – it's literally in the palm of farmers’ hands.
Chatting in the fields
Cropwise AI is designed to help advisors and agronomists as well as farmers. One of the most immediate problems for farmers and agronomists is seed selection.
For one crop there could be thousands of available hybrid varieties to choose from, and each farm is also unique, with its own environment, needs, and pest and disease challenges, which all make seed selection a complex process.
Happily, with the Cropwise AI chatbot, seed selection has been streamlined and simplified. Cropwise AI can provide detailed, on-demand data for Syngenta’s catalogue of seeds. By drawing from things such as weather and soil data, the AI can even offer tailored recommendations for a specific field.
Additionally, a farmer might select the right seed for the right field, but may have more questions about planting density, or whether variable rate seeding would be the best option for a particular area. These are all questions Cropwise AI has the knowledge to answer, in a quick, intuitive and accessible way.
As well as drawing knowledge from historical sources, it also pulls real-time data from other sources, such as weather reports, to give reliable, up to date information.
“By combining our deep agronomic knowledge with cutting-edge AI capabilities, we are bringing the power of generative AI to agriculture and empowering growers to make data-driven decisions,” says Feroz Sheikh, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Syngenta.
Ethical, dependable technology
As a crucial part of the development process, Cropwise AI went through careful and rigorous testing. The team collected expert questions and then ran them against the new Cropwise AI model. The answers that were returned were tested through human evaluation and against another large language model. Results were recently published in a blog for AWS and showed that Cropwise AI scored extremely highly in terms of concision, relevance and the faithfulness of information it provides.
When used on the ground by sales advisors, Cropwise AI allowed them to generate detailed and analytical recommendations for farmers up to five times quicker than traditional methods.
But it’s not just important to make sure that AI models are reliable – it’s also vital that they are deployed ethically and responsibly. It’s for exactly that reason that Syngenta has an AI manifesto – 10 commitments governing how the company handles data and AI.
Cropwise AI generates detailed recommendations for farmers up to five times faster than before.
Cropwise AI generates detailed recommendations for farmers up to five times faster than before.
Key to these commitments is putting the farmer at the center of how the data is used. Serg Masis, Senior Data Scientist at Syngenta, explains: “Cropwise AI was designed around the manifesto as this allows for us to respond to what customers need and at the same time make sure our use of AI is transparent and easy to understand.”
Currently the app is being used by a few hundred Golden Harvest sales teams across North America before being rolled out to thousands of farmers there later this year.
Ryan Vogelzang, GHX and Digital Agronomy Product Manager, was involved in testing out the Cropwise AI chatbot on the ground. “It’s been really well received – people have been excited about what it can do, and the ways it can scale in the future,” he says.
The benefits of the Cropwise AI aren’t just in the information it can provide but the way it helps experts understand what farmers need.
AI helps organize and display vital information quickly and easily for users.
AI helps organize and display vital information quickly and easily for users.
“This is a cyclical business so it’s great to have a resource like this – a farmer might ask for recommendations for a certain field but if you’ve not been there for six months, that’s a challenge Cropwise AI can help solve,” explains Vogelzang.
On top of that, the new AI helps organize and display vital information quickly and easily. “Using this we can see whether a farmer would be ready for a delivery, or if they’ve made use of our financing tools like AgriClime,” he adds.
When agronomy advisors have access to this kind of information it helps them work more closely with farmers and make better, more efficient, decisions.
As we look to feed a growing population using fewer resources, Cropwise AI stands at the forefront of this challenge, ushering in a new era of smart, data-driven farming. With this new technology, the path to higher yields and sustainable farming isn't just within reach – it’s literally in the palm of farmers’ hands.
