The American Soybean Association applauded the Commerce Committee for moving forward the Precision Agriculture Connectivity Act of 2018. ASA President and Iowa soybean grower John Heisdorffer issued the following statement: “ASA welcomes the Precision Agriculture Connectivity Act of 2018 and thanks Sens. Wicker and Klobuchar and Representatives Lotta and Loebsack for introducing legislation which understands the unique needs of growers in rural America. We urge swift passage in the U.S. Senate as wireless broadband connections in the field support on-farm operations and in turn rural communities. This legislation is important to rural America and soy growers everywhere.”- Smithers-Oasis Company announces its partnership with Agrilyst, leading provider of a software as a service (SaaS) product for greenhouses and vertical farms that allows growers to track crops, labor, inventory and other metrics. Oasis Grower Solutions products will be included in Agrilyst, and offered to growers that subscribe to the software, which helps them manage their crops and provides data-driven insights to make more profitable production decisions.
- AgGateway and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have forged an agreement to work together on data projects to benefit American farmers in the transition to digital agriculture. The current agreement will consist of a series of efforts over the next 20 months; all results of the collaboration will be made publicly available. Specifically, the collaboration is designed to provide both parties with the opportunity to better serve the American farmer by: 1) Aligning USDA and AgGateway data elements and data standards; and 2) Developing procedures within the USDA that align with the use of precision ag technology and data used by producers and agri-businesses.
- Tractor maker John Deere and India’s biggest conglomerate, Tata Group, have agreed a groundbreaking initiative to provide machinery to as many as 100,000 smallholder farmers in the troubled Niger Delta region. The deal is the culmination of a seven-year project by Nigerian collective farming business, Alluvial Agriculture, to address the systemic problems that leave most African smallholder farmers in poverty and threaten food security across the developing world. Alluvial’s solution focuses on aggregating smallholders to create a nucleus of minimum efficient scale and the necessary education, mechanization, inputs and market access.
- Tractor Supply Company‘s ninth annual Spring Paper Clover Campaign recently raised more than $956,000 through customer donations to benefit 4-H youth across the country. As a result, thousands of 4-H youth will have opportunities to learn valuable leadership skills through camps, conferences and leadership events. Since its start, the company’s biannual fundraiser has collectively generated more than $13.9 million in essential funding.