Precision Ag News 11/20

Carrie Muehling

  • Global initiatives to enable smallholder farmers to become more climate resilient are having an impact, but more investments are needed to support farmer livelihoods and global food and nutrition security in the face of increasingly volatile conditions, according to a panel organized by Farm Journal Foundation at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Climate-Smart Solutions for Smallholders: Taking Stock of Progress and Future Opportunities in Agriculture, included a fireside chat about growing challenges in agriculture from climate change and how USDA and the U.S. government are helping farmers.
  • Farmers for Sustainable Food, Houston Engineering, Inc. and Peninsula Pride Farms were honored at the Sustainable Agriculture Summit this week as Field to Market’s 2024 Collaboration of the Year for their work on the Peninsula Pride Farms Sustainability Project. The PPF Project is in its fourth year, involved 11 farms managing over 34,000 acres and 40,000 head of dairy cattle in two Wisconsin counties.
  • The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) webinar season opens on November 26 with ‘Understanding Plant Breeding’, the first in IFAJ’s new ‘Sharing the Knowledge’ initiative. Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel famously laid down the plant breeding framework in the 19th century; 21st century plant breeding still leans heavily on their original ideas. In this webinar, Syngenta’s Uri Krieger and Ian Jepson use the history of plant breeding as a context to better understand its importance in successful crop production, including how we can use it to develop the resilient crops needed to help growers tackle an increasingly volatile climate.
  • CropLife International expressed support for the G20 Leaders’ Declaration issued as the Rio de Janeiro Summit concluded, welcoming the central role of agricultural productivity and food system transformation in the commitments made by the world’s leading economic nations.
  • BASF Agricultural Solutions is introducing Endura® PRO fungicide, the newest broad-spectrum fungicide innovation for potato growers. Endura PRO fungicide provides long-lasting protection against some of the toughest diseases in potatoes, including early blight and white mold, helping farmers improve yield performance.
  • Join the Soil Health Institute on Wednesday, December 4 at 12 p.m. EST to hear U.S. Regenerative Cotton Fund’s Soil Health Educator Jessica Kelton and Texas A&M University Agriculture Conservationist Jodie McVane discuss two fact sheets we developed with Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Rodale Institute. VF Corporation Senior Manager, Global Sustainability Programs Alyse Russel will moderate a Q&A session.
  • Orbia’s Precision Agriculture business Netafim and Bayer announced an expansion of their strategic collaboration, starting with new digital farming solutions for fruit and vegetable growers. By simplifying primary data collection and delivering a system that can generate tailored recommendations from that data, the new solutions aim to help growers maximize crop production and optimize their use of resources, thus minimizing the impact on the environment.
  • Held in Miami, Biostimulant World Congress offered keynote speeches, expert panels, scientific presentations, and networking to attendees. Keynote speaker, Kynetec’s Warrick Steptoe, presented “Insights on biostimulant adoption, market sizing and trends in key crops and geographies”. With 20 years’ experience, Warrick’s expertise allows him to deliver market intelligence that drives positive business decision making.
  • Kubota North America announced it has been recognized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® for its innovation and design excellence earning it a “Best of Innovation” in the CES Innovation Awards® 2025 program for the Kubota KATR, a first of its kind, compact, four-wheeled robot with a stable cargo deck platform with stability control features that allow it to conduct work in demanding off-road agricultural and construction work environments, even on hills and slopes.
  • New research published in Scientific Reports describes a breakthrough in nitrogen fertilizer technology. Conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Purdue University and Pivot Bio, the study shows that gene-edited microbes can fix nitrogen from the air and feed it to cereal plants’ roots, providing the essential nutrient to crops.
  • AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes, Precision Agriculture