Microsoft to Open Source Its Agri Technology Tools to Support Data-Driven Farming

Microsoft will open source the tools used in Project FarmVibes, its farm-focused technology, so that researchers, data scientists, and farmers can build on them to turn agricultural data into action.

This could help boost yields and reduce costs. FarmVibes is a project that assists farmers in gathering farm-based data from sensors installed on the ground, drones in the sky, and satellites in space.

FarmVibes is the first open-source release AI. This tool can assist farmers in making decisions at all stages of farming, from planting seeds to harvesting.

The tool's algorithm, which runs on Microsoft Azure, predicts the optimal amount of fertiliser and herbicide to use and where to apply it; forecasts temperatures and wind speeds across fields, informing farmers when and where to plant and spray; determines the optimal depth to plant seeds based on soil moisture; and tells farmers how different crops and practises can keep carbon sequestered in his soil.

Experts believe that open-sourcing agricultural technology tools can help address the world's urgent food and climate change crises. To feed the world by 2050, we'll need to roughly double global food production, but as climate change accelerates, water levels drop, and arable lands disappear, doing so sustainably will be a huge challenge.

Data-driven agriculture, according to Ranveer Chandra, managing director of Research for Industry, is one of the most promising approaches to addressing this RFI. Microsoft's RFI initiative seeks to identify advances in technologies such as connectivity, robotics, and AI and apply them in a variety of industries such as retail, agri-food, and others.