Smart fields, greenhouses and herds: agriculture plans to be digitalized. Digitalization of the agro-industrial complex - a requirement of the new time Prospects for the digitalization of agriculture and Internet of things projects

Digitalization is an obvious trend in recent years, experts talk about modern technologies, for example, in, and. Judging by the results of an enlarged meeting of the Scientific and Expert Council of the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues, which took place this week in the lower house of parliament, the "figure" has reached agriculture.

As the State Secretary - Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation told Ivan Lebedev, The Ministry of Agriculture of Russia has developed a departmental project "Digital Agriculture", which is planned to be fully implemented in the period from 2019 to 2024. The project budget will amount to 304 billion rubles, and half of these funds are planned to be received from the state as an additional subsidy, and the other 152 billion rubles are expected to come from extra-budgetary sources. namely, from agro and IT business.

From information technologies in agriculture, a large-scale transformation of the agricultural sector as a whole is expected, a decrease in production costs in this area, an increase in investment, automation of decision-making and minimization of human interference in production processes, as well as an increase in the number of jobs and the development of exports. Moreover, by 2024, according to the ministry, all agricultural products for export will be accompanied by a paperless tracking system "from field to port." And within the country, the control system will operate "from field to counter".

The project involves work in several directions. Thus, it is planned to widely use information databases to monitor the state and development of agricultural facilities. Already today, as specified in the recommendations for the meeting (available at the disposal of GARANT.RU), a single Information system agricultural land (EFIS ZSN), which is filled with information, including on the location, condition and actual use of each land plot by region. It is assumed that the system will be integrated with the bases of Rosreestr and Roskosmos, and by 2021 this will allow introducing intelligent sectoral planning in 85 constituent entities of the Federation, the so-called "effective hectare". That is, the most profitable crops will be grown in the regions, taking into account soil and climatic characteristics, as well as transport infrastructure.

It is also planned to create an intelligent system of measures state support and Personal Area recipient of subsidies. Then farmers will be able to go through electronic identification in the Unified identification and authentication system and in the Unified Biometric System, and by 2021, it is expected that only smart contracts will be concluded between the state and the recipients of subsidies.

And for agribusiness, they are going to develop digital products, and with a large-scale involvement of domestic IT solutions. Among such products: "smart farm", "smart field", "smart herd", "smart greenhouse", "smart processing", "smart warehouse", "smart agro-office". That is, in these areas, a full innovative and complex scientific and technical cycle will be applied.

In addition, experts, in particular, the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues Vladimir Kashin, talked about individual technological solutions in the field of digitalization of agriculture. Among them: "drones" for soil analysis, monitoring, quality assessment and crop spraying; sensors for assessing the condition of plants; geolocation for the accuracy of field work due to satellite navigation. Representatives of the State Duma also do not exclude that robots will be able to monitor the health of cows and the quality of milk.

It is assumed that the conditions for the formation new system already formed thanks to the emergence of analytics "big data", "cloud" technologies, cheap sensors, broadband mobile communications as well as in connection with the development artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, the proliferation of service robotics. However, for now, the deputies admit, the digitalization of agriculture is at an early stage.

Among the problems that currently impede development, experts point out:

lack of scientific and practical knowledge about modern agricultural technologies and methodology among specialized specialists;
lack of financial resources for farmers to purchase new technology, equipment and platforms;
digital inequality, which is expressed in the absence of settlements access to mobile communications and the Internet;
foreign origin of most of the resources used in Russia for communication and organization of digital services.

Finally, the experts came to the usual conclusion in the field of digitalization that the introduction of technologies is only a tool, and the key development factor is good management and human resources... Thus, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management Sergey Lisovsky urged the authorities not to idealize "digital".

Nevertheless, the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia sees as its goal the transformation of agriculture through the introduction of digital technologies and platform solutions. This task, we recall, is contained in the new "May" decree of the President of the Russian Federation (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 7, 2018 No. 204 ""). Ultimately, productivity in digital farming is expected to double by 2024.

On November 27, within the framework of the V International Agroindustrial Dairy Forum, a session "Digital Agenda for the Dairy Industry" was held. It was attended by Irina Ganieva, Director of the Department of Digital Development and Management of State Information Resources of the Agro-Industrial Complex of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, who presented the departmental project "Digital Agriculture".

Its goal is to provide a technological breakthrough in the agro-industrial complex through the introduction of digital technologies in agriculture. It is assumed that this will increase labor productivity at agricultural enterprises by 2 times by 2021.

One of the stages of the project implementation will be the creation of an Intelligent System of State Support Measures. Integration with the bases of Roshydromet and the Ministry of Emergencies will make it possible to adjust subsidies when emergencies are introduced in the regions. It is planned that by 2021, 100% of contracts with recipients of state support will be concluded in electronic form. By the same date, all agricultural products for export will be accompanied by a paperless system “from field to port”.

Also, by 2021, it is planned to introduce intelligent sectoral planning in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation on the principle of growing the most profitable crops, taking into account the transport shoulder to the place of processing or consumption. The project also envisages the creation of the first in Russia sectoral electronic educational system "Land of Knowledge". In 2019-2021, 55,000 specialists from domestic agricultural enterprises will be trained in the competencies of the digital economy.

The Ministry of Agriculture of Russia has developed a roadmap for the implementation of the Digital Agriculture project until 2021, with a detailed indication of the tools and timing of the measures.

Digitalization appears to many as the famous black box from a famous program, which can conceal any surprise. The correspondents of the magazine “ Agricultural engineering and technology».

According to Igor Kozubenko, Director of the Department for Development and Management of State Information Resources of the Agro-Industrial Complex of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia, the level of digitalization of agriculture can increase at least three to four times in index terms. “The industry is ready to transfer to its soil almost all technologies that exist in the digital economy. Calculated in monetary terms, the information technology market in agriculture is more than 360 billion rubles. According to our forecasts, it should grow 3-5 times in the next 10-15 years, ”the official notes.

Comprehensive digitalization of agricultural production, from his point of view, will allow farmers to reduce costs by 23%. So, the average cost savings for land use using GPS navigation technologies is 11-14%, with differentiated fertilization - 8-12%, and thanks to parallel driving systems - 8-13%. “With the ineffective use of agribusiness tools, up to 40% of the harvest is lost,” says Igor Kozubenko, explaining that tools traditionally mean plant protection products, seed stock, machine and tractor fleet and new technologies, primarily precision farming technologies.

Comprehensive digitalization of agricultural production will allow farmers to reduce costs by 23%.

The main task is to feed people

Consumption of the overwhelming majority of types of food in Russia is at a level significantly lower than the medical norm, says Alexander Gerasimov, director for analysis of cloud and IT services markets at J’son & Partners Consulting. Therefore, any program for the modernization of agriculture should be aimed at solving this very problem - to feed people. Since the real disposable income of the population in Russia has been declining for the fifth year in a row, the only way out is to reduce retail prices, and not by 10-15%, but several times, while maintaining or even increasing the margins of agricultural producers' business and at least not worsening the quality of products. Is it possible? Oddly enough, yes, but only if the entire process of production and marketing of agricultural products is radically restructured, which, in fact, is called digital transformation.

The expert named two factors that make it possible to increase the consumption of agricultural products in Russia. First, inaccessibility for the vast majority of agricultural producers in Russia modern means mechanization and automation is the main reason for extremely low labor productivity, respectively, high unit costs. The transition from the model of selling agricultural machinery and automation equipment to the ownership of the model of payment for their functions based on the actual volume or even the results of consumption, which is the basis of digital transformation, solves the problem of the availability of equipment and, consequently, increasing labor productivity. Since we start from a very low level of performance, it may well increase 3-5 times.

Secondly, digitalization, due to its end-to-end nature, makes it possible to informationally link the needs of a specific end user and the capabilities of a specific agricultural producer, thus eliminating many unnecessary intermediaries, which now account for up to 80% of the retail price of a product.

Together, these two factors will increase the consumption of agricultural products in our country by 1.5 times, that is, the effect of an increase in consumption will cover the decline in retail prices, while the marginality of the business of agricultural producers will even grow, and the risks will decrease. The fleet of tractors will increase by 300 thousand units, harvesters - by 300 thousand, and the consumption of fertilizers will grow 9 times. This is what in game theory is called a win-win model (games with a positive prize amount) - all participants in the digitalization process, including the end consumer, win, sums up Alexander Gerasimov.

The main difficulty of digitalization is the integration of all systems and business processes.

Transparent land use

New technologies significantly clarify the situation with the state of land and land use. For example, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, in the Stavropol Territory, the GIS "Distribution of agricultural land" is actively used. Satellite monitoring showed that 251,406.4 ha more arable land is used in the Stavropol Territory than according to the data Rosstat... This technology has another useful effect: it allows you to specify and adjust the number of bankrupt farms. So, out of 32 farms of the region declared bankrupt by the Federal Tax Service, 4 turned out to be working enterprises. Finally, in September 2017 alone, monitoring revealed 189 fires.

In the Volgograd region, using satellite monitoring, they carried out an inventory of agricultural land and found unused land. This allowed in 2017 to reduce the area of uncultivated arable land by 84.6 hectares.

In 2017, the agro-industrial complex invested more than 800 million rubles in information technology. This is a paltry figure compared to the gross income received by agriculture.

Downside

On the other hand, there are many challenges faced by most businesses implementing modern technologies... “The main difficulty is the issue of integration. The systems must be integrated with all other business processes in the enterprise ", - he shared with" Agrotechnics and technologies"Development Director of the Agrodivision of the holding" Solar products"Vasily Ilyasov. His company recently introduced a satellite monitoring system to monitor equipment and perform agricultural operations. “Farmers often think that it is enough to buy expensive system, and everything will work right away, but without checking how it functions directly on the field, nothing will work, ”warns the farmer. According to him, until a person goes to the field and "digs" in the ground there, the data provided by the satellite will practically not help him. The farmer will only see many problems, but will not understand what they are connected with.

Another problem is the search for ready-made options. According to Vasily Ilyasov, there is no ready-made integrated solution on the market today that would provide automation and transparency of all business processes. “The management system on Russian farms is collective-farm,” says the specialist. - Agrarians keep numbers in their heads, remember something, but no, they count on their knees and look for a ready-made solution - a boxed version, which is enough to install, show, tell, and the whole team will immediately understand what to do. But this, of course, cannot be, because there are simply no such decisions. " Hence, the task arises to "make friends" the existing solutions with each other, to create a platform that will ensure data exchange, and to register some business processes from scratch.

According to Denis Usanov, director of ANT (a developer of a production process control system in crop production), it is possible to achieve this, but it will not be easy: “Collecting facts on technological operations that takes place in the field is a very difficult task. You need to understand which of the driver and machine operators was in the field and operated this or that tractor, as well as know which attachments were used. Usually this data is filled in manually. Although there is a software solution with which we get the identification of these parameters. "

Then the question arises of how to process the information received from technology. “We are making a completely open protocol for external systems. It can be 1C, and any other systems. It all depends on the IT landscape that has formed at the enterprise. Thus, integration with other platforms is possible, because we provide the information and documentation necessary for it. In a word, we want to achieve complete transparency of the information that is in the system, ”explains Usanov.

“We receive information from three sources: 1C, Excel and sensors,” continues Denis Usanov. “For example, the open platform made it possible for Bashkir-Agroinvest to implement various scenarios for obtaining information in order to generate complete reporting and obtain full control and manageability of the harvesting campaign.”

There is only one IT specialist for every thousand specialists employed in the agro-industrial complex, and there are 12 thousand IT specialists in the industry.

Where can I find an IT agronomist?

The next area of work - software agronomists and the search for specialists capable of applying IT technologies in agriculture. And this is perhaps the most difficult task for an agricultural enterprise. “Agronomists are almost impossible to find, let alone those who are good at computers. Even an intelligent agronomist who does everything that is needed “on a piece of paper” cannot be found with fire during the day. Now, what a competent agronomist used to write in his notebook, we need to translate into electronic view", - says Vasily Ilyasov.

Solnechnye Products decided to follow the path of introducing remote sensing systems of the earth and integrating maximum information about the fields there, Ilyasov says. The company set a task: to get electronic card fields, learn how to measure fields with high accuracy, enter these data into a computer and train an agronomist to work with them in the system. “First of all, we wanted to implement a process that allows data to be entered into this system directly in the field. This eliminates unnecessary work and increases the speed of data transfer, ”adds Ilyasov.

Agrodivision of the holding " Solar products»Progressively integrates different systems with each other. “We have already managed to integrate equipment monitoring and crop monitoring programs, weight management and operational accounting,” lists Vasily Ilyasov. “The next stage is the integration of all of them with the 1C regulated accounting system, which is what we are doing now.”

Domestic enterprises pay little attention to specialists working in the field of information technologies and investments in information technologies, Igor Kozubenko believes. “According to official statistics, more than 800 million rubles were invested in the agro-industrial complex in the field of information technologies in 2017. This is a paltry figure in comparison with the gross income received by agriculture, ”said the director of the Department for Development and Management of State Information Resources of the Agro-Industrial Complex. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, there is only one IT specialist for every 1,000 specialists employed in the agro-industrial complex, and there are 12,000 IT specialists in the industry. “The chief IT specialist in an agricultural holding is more expensive than the chief agronomist, because almost all agricultural enterprises are now not just agricultural producers. They simultaneously become IT companies, they have to look for new methods, create new technologies, write software. After all, today it is practically impossible to be competitive without programmers, ”Igor Kozubenko is convinced.

The risks of introducing digital technologies, according to the official, are associated not only with the lack of IT specialists, but also with their lack of knowledge. “Our department has 54 agricultural universities, with which we work closely, we are trying to introduce new disciplines, to interest the children in the fact that IT technologies in agriculture are beneficial. This is the future. For example, in the Timiryazev Academy from September 1, new discipline“Digital agriculture”, says Igor Kozubenko.

The digitalization of agriculture has both undeniable benefits and challenges that need to be addressed in the near future. On the one hand, the economic effect increases, labor productivity increases 3-5 times, the marginality of agribusiness increases, and the costs of agricultural producers decrease. New technologies make it possible to carry out an effective inventory of land and land use.

On the other hand, farmers are faced with difficult tasks in the implementation of precision farming technologies. These are the issues of integrating new systems with existing business processes, and the lack of a comprehensive solution that would provide automation and transparency of all business processes. A whole block of personnel issues arises: a lack of IT specialists adapted to the agricultural sector, a shortage of agronomists who can work with computer programs and applications, and low qualifications of people who have to maintain new equipment. And the success of the entire process of digitalization of agriculture in Russia largely depends on how quickly and competently these issues are resolved.

The world has entered an era of digital globalization, driven by data streams containing information, ideas and innovation. The introduction of digitalization technologies allows the state, business and society to function effectively.

Developed countries are successfully modernizing their economies, accelerated pace developing innovative technologies using artificial intelligence, automation and digital platforms. Global spending on scientific and technological development today is about 2.0 trillion. US dollars with an average annual growth rate of 4.0%.

The transfer of valuable streams of information, data, allows you to move goods, services, finances. Almost every type of cross-border transaction now has a digital component. Over the next five years, it is predicted that the flow of information, search queries, data, video, and intracorporate traffic will increase tenfold.

Today, the digital form of globalization opens the door to developing countries, for small companies and aspiring entrepreneurs, for billions of people. Tens of millions of small and medium enterprises worldwide have turned into exporters by joining e-commerce bases. Global streams of all types support growth through increased productivity, and data streams help create more efficient markets.

Digital technologies in the agro-industrial complex are the main way to strengthen the economy, its reorientation from a raw material to an industrial-service model using "smart" agricultural technologies, which are provided through machine learning and neural networks, digital platforms, 3D printing, robotics, biosensors and Big Data.

Digital technologies in the agricultural sector

Today, the opportunities for modernizing the agro-industrial complex are enormous: agriculture in the world is turning from a traditional to a high-tech industry, capable of creating new markets for innovative solutions and developments to solve a large number of practical problems.

Digitalization in the agrarian sector allows you to reduce risks, adapt to climate change, and increase crop yields. Reducing the cost of manufacturing products, improving their quality and competitiveness based on effective use resources and evidence-based approaches are the main task of digitalization.

Providing the necessary information to agricultural producers will reduce the costs of buying and selling, simplify the supply chain of products from the field to the consumer, and reduce the shortage of qualified labor force... Entrepreneurs need to produce more food with fewer resources, so a significant breakthrough in agricultural production technology is needed.

Working without digitalization means losing in global competition. In order to remain competitive in the market, it is necessary to forecast the supply of products depending on the demand and preferences of consumers. For making the right management decision Growers must be proficient in digital technology such as satellite imagery, high-tech sensors, mobile apps and GPS systems.

The experience of countries with a developed agricultural sector indicates that the introduction of IT technologies into production has reduced unplanned costs by up to 20%: using available mobile or online applications, data obtained from equipment, sensors, drones, satellites and other external applications are used for making optimal decisions. New technologies make it possible to trace the entire path of product promotion from the field to the consumer, which guarantees its quality and meets the needs of customers.

Digitalization will become key tool for the development of the main directions of regulation of the agro-industrial complex, including the availability of financing for the subjects of the agro-industrial complex, the availability of sales markets and the development of exports. The digitalization of the agro-industrial complex will help increase competitiveness and labor productivity, ensure food safety and attract investment in the industry.

Creation of innovative agro-industrial parks

As part of the digitalization of the agro-industrial complex, technological agricultural parks are being created, where they use the latest technology in precision farming, crop production, seed production, phytosanitary, digital solutions and sustainable management.

The problem of storage and processing of agricultural products in the regions of Russia is being solved: the construction of 5 wholesale distribution warehouses with a total area of more than 260,000 sq. M. Has begun. The former wholesale distribution centers were mainly focused on retail and small-scale wholesale trade. Analysts point out that the time has come for new and technological alternatives. It is expected that in the next 5 years, the active construction of modern agricultural parks with warehouse terminals with multi-temperature chambers for storing vegetables and fruits, cross-docks and equipped wholesale warehouses will begin in the regional centers.

The end of the year is the time for traditional conferences and business meetings for Russian agricultural producers. At the third international agricultural conference, held in Moscow, they discussed the digitalization of agribusiness and other issues. As it turned out, in practice, many trends look different from what they are declared.

Peculiarities of digitalization of agribusiness in Russia

At the end of November, the Ministry of Agriculture announced a new Digital Agriculture program. Its goal is to provide a technological breakthrough in the agro-industrial complex through the introduction of digital technologies in agriculture. It is assumed that this will increase labor productivity at agricultural enterprises by half by 2021. And some steps in this direction have already been taken. As Andrey Kasatsky noted, general manager company AGROVITA, Russian farms have an operational opportunity to receive electronically detailed extracts on land plots from the State Register. Full information on your land, border, current cost, as well as a reminder to pay taxes, information on benefits and much more can be obtained electronically in the State Register. And this greatly facilitates the work. economic services agricultural companies, allows you to monitor the situation with land plots in their regions. According to the conference participants, this is undoubtedly a positive result of digitalization.

But not everything is so logical and effective in other areas of informatization of agribusiness in Russia. For example, in yield mapping. In theory, it looks simple: tractors, sprayers, combines are equipped with special sensors. Information from sensors goes to unified system, analyzed, then a map of the yield of fields is built, with which the agronomist works. In practice, it turned out that there is one significant problem. Sensors that are installed on combines, tractors and other agricultural equipment usually require calibration and verification. There is no one to carry out these technical operations on the farms. And the invitation of a specialist to carry out such work is not available to everyone. As a result, you have to rely on inaccurate information, or pay significantly extra for the accuracy of the information. In such a situation, small and medium-sized farms are switching to a more economical scheme, using ready-made satellite images or filming from drones. Images can be obtained during the entire growing season, to estimate the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) - a normalized relative vegetation index, which can be used to judge the development of plant biomass during the growing season. And the other Additional information collect by yourself using available means.

As Dmitry Sherer (Kemerovo Azot company) noted, it is interesting and exciting to talk about yield maps, but to do it in Russian conditions not so easy. But on the field of "decryption" of digital data, you can build a new successful business... Since the demand for such services now significantly exceeds their supply.

Farmer translator

The agronomic consulting market is actively developing in Russia. And the digitalization of agriculture has become an additional incentive for such growth. Thus, the AgroDronGroup company, which was engaged in drones, rather quickly expanded its range of services by creating its own algorithm for translating the obtained aerial survey data into a language accessible to an agronomist.

The market for agronomic aerial photography both in Russia and in other countries is much more capacious than the market for cartography. A field map is usually done once every 5-10 years, and the survey of plants occurs from five to twenty times per agricultural season, depending on the depth of technology implementation. The service of translating information from digital media into a language understandable to an agronomist is in demand in many countries. The AgroDronGroup company has created, patented and brought to the market an interpretive algorithm that interested farmers from many countries. The algorithm was created after repeated research in the fields of the southern and central districts of Russia. Comparing measurements from a drone, as well as laboratory and field measurements, the company's specialists have calculated an algorithm that helps to translate the data with high accuracy.

As noted by Dmitry Rubin, General Director of AgroDronGroup, many companies make the so-called vegetation nitrogen index NDVI, which determines the relative nitrogen content, and how much nitrogen it contains is unknown. The developed algorithm calculates the specific nitrogen content. And this is already the agronomic parameter with which a farmer can work.

The company plans to create a cloud service where it will be possible to upload your data obtained during a professional field survey, and then receive it in the form of understandable information in your personal account.

Consulting as a new trend

Dmitry Sherer, representative of Kemerovo Azot, spoke at the conference about how the company for the production and sale of fertilizers came to agronomic consulting.

Obviously, you need to make money not only on the sale of fertilizers, but also on related services: agricultural consulting, providing chemicals protection, analysis and sampling, agrochemical soil analysis.

The company built the agronomic consulting scheme in a few years. Agronomists-consultants work in six regions, who are equipped with modern equipment... Additionally, the central office has professional agrochemists and agronomists who promptly respond to inquiries from farms. Consultants, commissioned by farms, can inspect fields, determine the level of moisture, soil temperature, and conduct other express analyzes with reference to GPS. In the Kemerovo Region alone, owners of more than 40 thousand hectares have already switched to such a service system. On average, each consultant can serve up to 50 thousand hectares.

The practice of using agronomic consulting is likely to grow. Since there is now a strong shortage of professional agronomists in Russia. And new technical capabilities make it possible to quickly and efficiently serve the farm, providing it with all the necessary information.

Differentiated fertilization

Practically in all documents on the development of agriculture in Russia - doctrines, plans, programs - differentiated fertilization is mentioned. But in this direction, as the discussion at the conference showed, not everything is clear. Everybody agrees with the idea of fertilization taking into account the characteristics of crops and fields. And the possibilities for building maps of soil fertility in Russia are increasing every year. There are more and more laboratories for agrochemical soil research. Experts advise when choosing a laboratory to pay attention to their technical and staffing, strict adherence to GOST methods when conducting research.

Having received the result of a qualitative analysis of the soil, the agronomist can create a map-plan for differentiated fertilization. But it is difficult to implement such a plan, and often it is simply impossible. It's all about technology. There are fundamental technical solutions for differentiated fertilization on the market, and Russian specialists know about them. But the price of such equipment is quite high. If you apply fertilizers with standard spreaders, which are in many farms, then you should not expect a good result. When leveling fertility with a seeder, the results are better, but they are also far from expected.

Russian specialists dealing with the problem of differential fertilization believe that it will be necessary to combine precision application sensors, which are produced for machines from other industries, and install them on agricultural machines. Negotiations are underway with several sensor manufacturers to test them in the coming agricultural season.

The third international agricultural conference "Exchange of experience in the field of crop production and plant nutrition", organized by the "Iglus" company, showed that Russian agribusiness will have to solve many different problems on the way to digitalization and increase profitability. Perhaps, the solution of these tasks will be facilitated by the creation of the first in Russia branch electronic educational system "Land of Knowledge", which will start operating from next year. According to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, 55,000 specialists from domestic agricultural enterprises will be trained in the competencies of the digital economy in 2019-2021.

Larisa Yuzhaninova