Gabriel Miodownik is CEO & President of Netafim, Orbia’s Precision Agriculture business.
Agriculture is at a tipping point, challenged by labor shortages, rising food demand and escalating operational costs. These pressures are further compounded by water scarcity, erratic weather patterns and shrinking arable land.
As a result, many farmers worldwide are seeing crop yields become smaller and less predictable, while profit margins continue to shrink. Amid such uncertainty, traditional farming methods can no longer guarantee stable, consistent productivity.
The challenge is clear: We must grow more with less and fundamentally change how we produce food.
Data-driven agriculture is already transforming how we grow crops, making farming more precise, productive and sustainable. For agri-businesses, landowners, investors and food companies, stability now depends on farms’ ability to adapt not only to shifting natural conditions but also to technological innovations in the field. For growers, stability hinges on making smarter decisions in real time: when and how much to irrigate, how much fertilizer to apply, how to shield crops from heatwaves or frost and more.
By turning instinct and experience into actionable intelligence, precision agriculture empowers farmers to make confident, high-impact decisions at every stage of cultivation.
Why Traditional Farming Needs An Upgrade
Traditional farming was once dominated by educated guesswork, with farmers pulling from past experiences to try and predict the best actions for their crops. But with rising temperatures, erratic precipitation, extreme weather events like extreme heat waves and other challenges, this approach is increasingly unsustainable.
Technology and data-driven agriculture are now crucial stabilizers amid growing uncertainties, giving farmers greater control and turning what was once a battle against unpredictable forces into a more monitored and manageable operation.
With strategic implementation, these digital transformations can impact every corner of the farm: Agricultural robots and automated machinery like tractors and harvesters can reduce reliance on scarce labor, while real-time soil and plant moisture assessments and automated-precision irrigation can optimize water, fertilizer and pesticide use. Drone and satellite-enabled mapping, early pest detection, precise fertigation and disease identification offer a comprehensive, granular view of crop health, strengthening growers’ command over their fields.
The Benefits Of Precision Agriculture
Deploying data-enabled technology democratizes knowledge and empowers smallholder farmers with the same level of insights and recommendations as large growers, offering a great opportunity for the agriculture industry to solve today’s global food challenges. These solutions combine advanced technology, including AI, IoT, data analytics and automation, to maximize crop yield, reduce waste and improve overall farm efficiency, enabling the shift from reactive management to proactive cultivation.
Precision agriculture creates a continuous feedback loop, empowering farmers to make decisive, data-driven choices. By leveraging data throughout the agricultural cycle, it transforms agricultural planning by:
• Continuously Monitoring Field Conditions: Sensors and remote tools offer real-time updates on soil, weather, crop health and irrigation status, allowing farmers to detect problems before they’re visible and offer timely interventions.
• Enabling Precise Deployment Of Inputs To Maximize Yields: In a resource-strained world, farmers can now apply exact amounts of water, fertilizer and pesticides only where and when needed, minimizing costs, eliminating waste and maximizing yields.
• Automating Labor-Intensive Tasks And Enhancing Operational Control: With tools like robotic harvesters and drones, growers can cut down on time-consuming manual inspections, streamline data collection and accelerate analysis of crop health.
• Offering Comprehensive Insights: The extensive data yielded by precision agriculture ultimately supports granular traceability of crop performance from season to season, informing better decisions for future planting.
The Challenges Of Precision Agriculture
Data-driven farming holds great promise, yet adoption still faces an “adoption chasm” between early innovators and the wider farming community. Growers are rightly cautious, balancing upfront costs, ease of use and uncertain returns. Meanwhile, integration with existing, older or mixed-brand equipment often stalls progress.
Connectivity gaps in rural areas and limited service networks can slow real-time insights and timely maintenance. Fragmentation compounds the problem: Many tools run in isolation, each with its own platform, data model and subscription, creating data overload without clear, actionable insights.
Even when pilots work, scaling across fields, crops and seasons is challenging without tailored support. Furthermore, because precision agriculture reshapes daily workflows—from irrigation and fertigation timing to monitoring and maintenance—learning curves and busy seasons can fuel resistance to change. As a result, many farmers understandably stick with what they know, even if it’s less efficient.
Closing this gap requires intuitive, interoperable, farmer-centric ecosystems that connect equipment, data and agronomic know-how. With shared innovation, local expertise, sustained training and a clear line of sight to economic value, farmers can confidently scale digital practices and, ultimately, grow more with less.
Digital Agriculture As A Business Imperative
The insights and control afforded by data-driven agriculture extend beyond the farm—this digital revolution stands to benefit the entire food ecosystem.
The optimization of global produce is a key outcome of adopting a data-enabled approach, providing transparency and real-time visibility from farm to table. By providing greater predictability, this technology enables processors, distributors and retailers to make more accurate yield forecasts and improve inventory planning, which ultimately leads to enhanced cost control.
Furthermore, data-driven insights into growing conditions, harvest yields and climate risks support better contracts and logistics, acting as a stabilizer amid a shaky economic climate. Coupled with the ability to optimize growing conditions and provide real-time traceability, a data-driven approach can significantly enhance food quality and safety, reducing risks and strengthening consumer confidence.
This increased visibility at multiple points throughout the farm-to-table cycle helps to build greater supply chain resilience by providing early warnings of potential disruptions like droughts or pests, enabling businesses to make rapid, data-informed adjustments to mitigate damage.
Turning Bytes Into Bites
The digital farming revolution is here. Farmers who embrace data-driven agriculture could gain unprecedented efficiency, control, resilience and insight. By leveraging real-time data, growers can anticipate challenges, act with precision and maximize yields more effectively.
Ultimately, a precision agriculture approach can provide the blueprint for a sustainable, resilient and productive global food system. By empowering farmers to grow smarter, agtech players can ensure that farms thrive and prosper, consumers benefit and that food supply remains secure for generations to come.
Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
