Agricultural technology has world-changing potential — increased yields for both crops and animals, reduced spoilage, decreased water usage, and so on. Researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs and leading-edge investors have been working on solutions to deliver on this potential. For farmers, it has the potential to reduce risks and increase profits.

Today’s farmers face volatile commodity prices, unpredictable weather, changing market demands and slim profit margins. They need better returns on their fixed investment in their land and equipment, and their variable expenses such as seeds, fertilizers, chemicals, fuel and labor.

Farmers tend to be conservative and skeptical by nature. They also have vast experience and knowledge of their own farms, and frequently they have generations of practical and productive operating experience. Best practices learned by sharing many years of farming practices between farm communities have led to many optimized solutions, and pur