We are very pleased to announce that Syngenta is extending its leadership in the Digital Agriculture space by acquiring The Cropio Group, an AgTech company. Cropio offers operational management solutions for farms to help growers make timely and sound agronomic decisions.

The Cropio platform is an equipment-integrated, end-to-end software that provides imaging, record-keeping and equipment tracking. With nearly a 10 million hectare customer footprint, primarily in Russia and Ukraine, the transaction will enhance Syngenta ability to bring greater value to customers in Eastern Europe.

This acquisition is part of a global strategy to accelerate innovation and develop digital technologies to meet customer needs and deliver Seeds and Crop Protection businesses. With this acquisition, Syngenta is the only agricultural company to have access to leading farm management platforms in the top four agriculture markets: the US with Land.db, Brazil with Strider, China with MAP (Modern Agricultural Platform) and now Eastern Europe with Cropio.

Having a strong digital presence in key markets enables Syngenta to help growers to significantly increase their productivity, efficiency and profitability. We anticipate many opportunities for collaboration across Syngenta digital assets. This is yet another great example of how Syngenta is investing in technologies that matter to bring about more sustainable agriculture.

Agroprognoz helps to prevent diseases and pests

Apart from global acquisitions, Syngenta in Ukraine already has some good cases of implementing digital instruments to bring added value to our customers. This year Syngenta Ukraine has opened to farmers access to one of the unique services – the online system AgroPrognoz, which allows to predict with great accuracy the occurrence of diseases and pests in the field and to warn the agronomists. And this, in turn, allows you to respond quickly to the situation and combat the problem preventively, which significantly reduces crop losses. With the help of such a service, the farmer will not only be aware of the possibility of problematic situations in the fields, but will also be informed about ways to solve them.

Based on data collected from more than 60 weather stations, the system can predict the onset of conditions favorable for the development of diseases and pests and timely warn about it, as well as provide recommendations on the prevention and protection of plants from harmful factors. All you have to do is register at www.agroprognoz.com.ua, specify the location of the fields and the crops. In case of high probability of development of harmful objects, AgroPrognoz will inform about it by e-mail or SMS-message sent to the number specified at registration. That is, there is no need to constantly log on to the system and monitor the current situation, since the system itself will inform the user of the likelihood of a particular disease or pest and suggest the necessary steps to prevent problems.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

This was made possible by setup of special weather stations in Ukraine and the use of algorithms that allow to calculate the probability of occurrence of harmful objects on the basis of current and historical data from sensors installed at such stations. It is known that the appearance of disease on the field depends on many factors, such as the predecessor, the presence of spores in the soil, etc.

However, with the information we receive, we can determine how favorable the current situation is for the disease development in the nearest future.

Here it is possible to draw an analogy with the common cold in humans: if a person is exposed to the rain in cold air or strong wind - the likelihood of cold is very high, and it is better to do certain preventive actions, such as drinking hot tea, warm clothes, etc.

AgroPrognoz project works in similar way: receiving data from the network of stations about temperature, soil moisture, rainfall, etc. and accumulating them on this portal, we transmit information about the favorable conditions for the development of diseases or pests in the fields.

Access to this service is free of charge, you just need to register, enter information about the fields on which you want to get a forecast, and specify a way to inform about the probability of diseases and pests occurance. Next, the system will independently track the data in specific fields and notify their owners through the selected channels of communication.

WHAT INFORMATION CAN I GET?

After registering on the site it will be necessary to indicate which crops grow on each of the fields. For each crop, the system will show a list of malicious objects that can be monitored. For each such object, the system will determine the probability (as a percentage) of its occurrence on the specified field and crop. The example on picture above shows the likelihood of leaf septoria in the Wheat Colossus field as of March 26, 2019.

Each recommendation has a field where you can get a detailed description of the actions that are proposed if the forecast is confirmed. Such recommendations include:

• actions to check the correctness of the forecast;
• description of signs of diseases or pests;
• actions that will prevent the development of a harmful object and minimize the loss of its appearance.

An example of such a recommendation is shown on the picture above.

If the probability of disease occurrence is high (more than 80%), then the system will send a warning to the selected user by means of e-mail or SMS, which will allow to be aware of the current situation and to determine the priority of their own actions (for example, to first review such fields).

WHICH CROPS AND HARMFUL OBJECTS ARE NOW SUPPORTED?

Today, the AgroPrognoz project supports the following crops, diseases and  pests:

• Wheat and Barley: fusarium head blight, septoria tritici blotch,
  rust puccinia sp., aphid risk
• Sunflower: grey mould risk, stem rot sclerotinia, alternaria sp. model
  tomcast, downy mildew plasmopara halstedii soil borne
• Corn: fusarium head blight, leaf blight helminthosporium turcicum,
  grey leaf spot cercospora sp.
• Rapeseed/Canola: stem rot sclerotinia sclerotiorum, phoma stem cancer
• Garden: aphid risk, fireblight, scab / ascospore, codling moth

Syngenta also offers its customers the opportunity to receive the most accurate forecast and recommendations by setting a weather station directly in their field. Syngenta will connect the station to its service free of charge. In addition, you can buy such a weather station for the points earned in our AgroLiga loyalty program, that is, you do not need to spend money on it! And the more stations are connected to the service, the more accurate information each customer will get.

Today, AgroPrognoz service is a truly unique and, without a doubt, an effective digital product for farmers who understand modern land-based practices. The development of the service will continue, as Syngenta is constantly improving this product to provide farmers with useful tools that, together with quality crop protection products, will allow high and undamaged yields.

National VR record

Nevertheless it’s not the only example of Syngenta’s successful implementation of innovation technologies while working with our clients. Ukrainian Seedcare team received certificate for the National record: the biggest VR video broadcast at open air.

In 2019 Seedcare department (branch of business responsible for marketing of products for seed protection) has launched new services to support sales, such as Mobile Treaters, Phyto-pathology seeds analysis, QC Certification, Focused technical conferences in key regions.

During the Agrocenters (national field events hosted by Syngenta), the Seedcare team planned to showcase these new services to our customers. But the geographical locations of field days are far away from the Seedcare Institute, and the equipment is too expensive to be damaged during the transportation on the famous Ukrainian roads. So how it is possible to create a WOW-effect and showcase services in various locations across Ukraine?

The solution was in using modern hi-tech – VR headsets. We created a 360°-movie with Virtual Reality technology, so each customer could feel like he was on a visit at the Seedcare Institute and diagnostic centers during the Agrocenter. We presented our various services with enhancing small details with PIP (Picture-in-Picture) technology. We covered 600 key farmers through Ukraine during Agrocenters. On the last event in Ternopil the official record was set during the Seedcare class with 70 participants. Now Syngenta is the first company to be officially announced nationally with the VR record.

Seedcare Ukraine is always on the forefront of technologies! Next year we will evaluate the plan to expand this VR technology by creating short videos on key themes/services, and showcase them not only during Agrocenters, but also during technical conference and other F2F events with our customers.

So, as we can see, Syngenta is going with the times, offering farmers innovative solutions and seeking to help them become competitive through the introduction of advanced technologies.