AgriNovus Unveils Producer-Led Innovation Challenge

INDIANAPOLIS –
AgriNovus Indiana is launching a new competition designed to fill what it calls critical gaps in farm management software. The state’s agbiosciences initiative says the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge will seek solutions to challenges presented by the massive amounts of data farm operations must sift through. The winning team will receive a $25,000 grand prize from the Purdue Foundry.

“There’s tremendous amounts of data living all across the farm, whether it be in accounting systems, whether it be in equipment, whether it be in-field data, whether it just be operational data, and today, they’re using in many cases Google Sheets. They’re using Excel to try to bring these pieces (of) disparate information together in a single place and they want to analyze it,” said AgriNovus Chief Executive Officer Mitch Frazier.

The organization says some of the goals the participating teams can reach for include developing a solution to reduce manual data entry by automating the aggregation of data from farm operating systems. They can also seek to make it possible to quickly validate data quality, such as field-level information, seed inventory, and accounting entries.

“(Producers) need help in really taking the power of technology and bringing it to bear in their farm operation,” said Frazier. “The great news is Indiana is incredibly well-positioned to lead this. From our strength in B2B software to our strength in progressive producers, Indiana is at the forefront and we have an opportunity…to turn our ambition and our ideas into action.”