Industry Insights: Agribusiness - Farm Forward and the New Evolution of this Emerging Vertical

Written by Kristi Salmon on April 12, 2017.

facebook twitter linkedin
3fd068921b6ffb9a91aabc60ace4e0a9.jpg

We live in a technology driven world, with many of us wanting and needing to be connected at every turn, to every device, and so on. Technology has afforded us the means of innovation and advancement, from healthcare to communication to our everyday business. It is in business that technology has enabled us to garner the best of tech, helping to promote and produce goods and services.

This is certainly true when it comes to agribusiness, where revenues and technology are based within agriculture. Many agribusinesses are in heartlands and farming lands across the US and the growth of technology has given these farmers the ability to do more with their “business”.

Farming Technology

In the past, farmers relied on weather and seasons to calculate the best times to harvest or plant crops. Now, farmers are using technology to help them make the best possible decisions when it comes to growing and managing one or even multiple locations. Some of the new agribusiness technologies include:

  • Farm management software: allows farmers to efficiently manage resources, crop production, animals, etc.
  • Predictive data analytics: like other businesses, farmers rely on “big data” to answer their questions and help them make better decisions related to energy conservation, increasing efficiency, optimizing herbicides and pesticides.
  • Internet of Things (IoT): also known as smart agriculture, IoT can help farmers connect to different vehicles and machines, allowing them to view their lands without needing to leave their own inside work.
  • New farms: this technology provides alternative farming methods for locations that cannot support traditional farming, like indoor farming.

These technologies, as well as upcoming trends for agribusiness, are giving farmers a new way to farm, produce, and grow their business. But as with the weather and seasons of the past, these technologies need reliability and speed.

Covering the Rural Community

While broadband has been growing in urban communities and cities, it’s been slow within rural towns. An earlier report from the National Broadband Map showed that only 55% of those in rural areas have broadband access compared to 94% in urban areas. This divide is usually because many telecom providers target and install lines within high population density areas.

Mediacom Business knows that for businesses, especially in our rural communities, the need for available and reliable internet is critical. For agribusinesses, this is especially so, as the new technology depends on having fast speeds and a reliable connection to properly and effectively manage their crops and land.  As incubator spaces and innovation centers continually emerge, precision agriculture is a hot topic among these startups.  Using satellite imagery to help farmers better manage their crops – a high capacity fiber pipe is critical for transmitting data and imagery of this magnitude. In Mediacom Business’ latest partnership with the Missouri Innovation Center in Columbia, MO, we see this as a key development in their growth efforts.

Our high speed internet service is not only capable of handling these new tools, but we pride ourselves on being one of the few telecom providers that have deep rooted our high-capacity broadband network into rural communities – giving these areas the same level of internet access one would expect in any major metropolitan area. And we keep on going in an effort to put gigabit internet speeds within immediate reach of more local businesses in our 1,500 communities.

Part of Mediacom’s broader plan is to invest $1 billion over the next 3 years to, among other projects, upgrade and expand its national broadband network to ensure that we are bringing high speed internet to our rural communities.  Having also partnered with John Deere in the past to bridge the gap between reliable connectivity and farming operations, this next level technology is only as good as the robust broadband connection behind it.

Resources:

Mediacom Aims to Test Connected Tractors

Mediacom Business and John Deere Propose Plan to Automate Farming in Iowa

Agriculture Tech Market Map: 77 Startups Powering the Future of Farming and Agribusiness

Why IoT, Big Data & Smart Farming is the Future of Agriculture



newslettersignup

up