The digital revolution is changing the face of agriculture, with the zeros and ones that make up binary code set to become the most important tools for farmers worldwide. Highly automated tractors and combines equipped with a vast array of sensors are already traversing our fields of corn, oilseed rape, soybeans and wheat, collecting data about plant health, yields, soil composition and field topography. Drones and satellites are likewise helping farmers work more efficiently by generating millions of relevant data points. Nowadays satellite imaging allows us to analyze a single patch of land at a resolution of just 30 centimeters. The ability to analyze highly accurate data from the current growing season and compare it with previous years brings a whole new dimension to modern agriculture. “Farmers are able to better predict influences affecting yields and respond more quickly to changes. This means they can take prompt action to prevent harvest losses,” explains Tobias Menne, head of Digital Farming at Bayer’s Crop Science Division.

Digital farming is based on individual data elements. “There are thousands of different soil types around the world. But the soil’s quality can vary greatly even within a region or a ­single field. The more a farmer knows about his soils, the better equipped he is to decide which varieties to sow in a certain area to produce optimal yields,” says Menne. He and his team are eager to drive forward the digital revolution in agriculture.

“Digitalization enables farmers to make rapid decisions tailored precisely to individual fields – from selecting the right crop variety and applying exactly the right fertilizer dose through to determining the ideal time for crop protection measures and recognizing plant stress factors at an early stage,” Menne explains. The experts at Bayer can now use satellite data to remotely diagnose the condition of a crop and measure the biomass in each section of the field. But that’s not all. “We can almost distinguish individual plants from space,” says Menne.