Effective Stakeholder Engagement for Sustainable Agriculture
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Country
- Germany
Product
- My Virtual Farm
Tech Stack
- Game Development
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Brand Awareness
- Customer Satisfaction
- Innovation Output
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries
- Agriculture
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Sales & Marketing
Use Cases
- Farm Monitoring & Precision Farming
- Smart Irrigation
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
About The Customer
BASF’s Agricultural Solutions Division is a global company that works with farmers, agricultural professionals, pest management experts, and others to develop and maintain sustainable agriculture and healthy environments. With a rapidly growing population, the world is increasingly dependent on their ability to make this possible. That’s why they invest in a strong R&D pipeline and broad portfolio, including seeds and traits, chemical and biological crop protection, soil management, Plant Health, pest control, and digital farming. In 2018, their division generated sales of €6.2 billion.
The Challenge
The challenge was to effectively communicate sustainability aspects to customers and the value chain. This is crucial for raising awareness and initiating change, as well as bringing people together to discuss findings and create solutions. The goal was to create a communication tool that incorporates realistic qualitative agricultural and sustainability metrics in an engaging, entertaining, and educational way.
The Solution
The solution was the creation of an educational and interactive game called »My Virtual Farm«. The game, which is based on best agricultural practices, was conceptualized by experts from Sphera and BASF and programmed and visualized by a third party. In the game, a variety of crops can be planted on a virtual farm with a combination of agricultural inputs and practices like fertilizer, crop protection, and soil management. After the farming choices are made, an environmental and economic score is calculated and communicated to the player. Sphera provided technical support by developing the method and functionality of the games. Their consultants have the agricultural expertise to develop best agricultural practices for all possible combinations. The best practices are encoded in the tool.
Operational Impact
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Intelligent Farming with ThingWorx Analytics
Z Farms was facing three challenges: costly irrigation systems with water as a limited resource, narrow optimal ranges of soil moisture for growth with difficult maintenance and farm operators could not simply turn on irrigation systems like a faucet.
Case Study
Greenhouse Intelligent Monitoring and Control Solution
Farming Orchids is the most successful form of precision farming in Taiwan, and also the most exported flower. Orchids need a specific temperature and humidity conditions to grow and bloom, and its flowering time may not be in line with market demands, so the price collapses when there is overproduction. Therefore, some farmers began to import automated greenhouse control systems for breeding and forcing, which not only improves quality, but also effectively controls the production period and yield to ensure revenue. In 2012, an orchid farmer built a Forcing Greenhouse of about 200 pings (approximately 661 Square Meters) in Tainan, Taiwan. The system integrator adopted Advantech’s APAX-5000 series programmable automation controllers to build the control platform, coupled with Advantech WebAccess HMI/SCADA software, to achieve cloud monitoring. The staff of the orchid field can monitor important data anytime via smart phone, iPad, and other handheld devices, and control the growth and flowering conditions. System requirements: In the past, most environmental control systems of orchid greenhouses in Taiwan used PLCs (Programmable Logic Controller) with poorscalability and control, and could not be connected to the Internet formonitoring from the cloud. For advanced database analysis and networking capability, the PC platform must be adopted. Therefore, PAC Systems (Programmable Automation Controller) with both PLC programming capabilities andPC functions is a better choice.The environmental control of the Orchid greenhouse switches on and off devices like fan, shade net, cooling/heat pump, liquid flow control, water-cooling wall etc. It is controlled by a control panel of electric controllers, and is driven by a motor, to adjust the greenhouse temperature, humidity, and other environmental conditions to the set parameters.
Case Study
Enabling Internet of Things Innovation in Agriculture
DigiBale, wanted to apply technology know-how and IP from implementations successfully to more agriculture sectors including cotton, forestry, sugarcane and cattle. However, farmers and growers still have worries about the connected technology.
Case Study
Precision beekeeping with wireless temperature monitoring
Honeybees are insects of large economic value and provide a vital service to agriculture by pollinating a variety of crops. In addition, bees provide us with valuable products such as honey, beeswax, propolis, bee venom, etc. Monitoring of honeybee colony health, population, productivity, and environmental conditions affecting the colony health have always been exceedingly difficult tasks in apiculture. Research has shown that even small deviations (by more than 2°C) from the optimal temperatures have a significant influence on the development of the brood and the health of adult bees.
