Data driven farming and decision making: strategic for the berry industry

International consultant Fernando Martino gave some tools and techniques to improve the quality of the decisions taken at management level, and applying them to the berry business in particular. “The first objective is to have a deeper understanding of why we too often make poor decisions” said Fernando. The first step is to review situations where decisions can have an undesirable impact. The second step is to transfer insights and describe tools to improve the quality of decisions in its own organization. “The slower the decision process and the poorer the analysis the more money the company will loose” said Fernando. 3 major factors have to be analysed for a good quality decision making: biophysical factors (water, soil, climate), operating system (production and supply-chain management tools), decisional system (with the managers).

Good and bad examples

Fernando gave the example of the closedown of the China market for Chilean blueberries during the pandemia in 2020. The right decision taken by the Chilean exporters was to quickly divert sales to Europe, a market which remained opened. China had been for +15 years the best paying market for blueberries and cherries.

A more recent example is the forecast of the Peruvian export season of blueberries in 2023, heavily affected by El Niño. Various factors were indicating in advance that El Niño would exceptionally hit the Peruvian crops. By fact Peru reduced historically its blueberry exports by 31% in 2023 with the shipment of 225,000 tons. A prediction of 326,000 tons of exports was still given in July, while all indicators were clearly showing o the negative trend. At the end more then 6,000 containers were cancelled. “This situation could easily been avoided if more accurate predictions were made on time” said Fernando.

Why data became essential for a successful agriculture

The Morocco delegate of WayBeyond AI company from New Zealand explained how data can better help taking decisions than our ancestors, which was based on our experience. “Measurable data taken with precision tools will help understand what the plant really needs on real time” said Anas Bennis from WayBeyond Morocco. The plant indeed talks but we don’t understand them directly yet. To achieve an optimum yield more than 20 data parameters are needed, like weather forecast, humidity, water supply temperature, nutrients. “Growers face the double challenge of reduced profitability and the pressure to produce more food with fewer resources, along with evolving climates and extreme weather events” said Anas. The challenge is how a grower can use data every day to make decisions for a protected crop. Appropriate devices for measurement and analysis today exist, like the ones proposed by WayBeyond.io