Microsoft Joins Hands With Bayer to Provide Innovative Cloud-Based Enterprise Solutions for Agribusiness

Bayer announced new cloud-based solutions for the agri-food industry on March 14th. Bayer AgPowered Services, in conjunction with the new Microsoft Azure Data Manager for Agriculture, provide ready-to-use capabilities for businesses and organizations ranging from start-ups to global enterprises to license and use for their own internal or customer-facing digital solutions.

Azure Data Manager for Agriculture combines decades of agricultural expertise from Bayer with Microsoft cloud solutions, advancing the industry through readymade capabilities and robust infrastructure that allow innovators to focus on differentiated value. Following today's initial preview, which allows customers to explore both the Azure Data Manager and AgPowered Services, full commercial availability will be announced at a later date.

Companies building on-farm technologies can leverage Microsoft's new cloud infrastructure and core capabilities and Bayer's additional capabilities to create digital tools that support favorable agronomic outcomes for growers.

"Only innovation can ensure global food security while also protecting the environment. "Modern agriculture and food production generate a massive amount of valuable data that can drive productivity and sustainability," said Dr. Robert Reiter, Head of Research and Development for Bayer's Crop Science Division. "However, this data is often disconnected, not useable throughout the value chain, and the costs to build digital solutions from scratch are high. Our new cloud-based solutions assist in overcoming these obstacles. Customers can use the infrastructure and capabilities to build their digital solutions and products on top of the world's most comprehensive collection of agricultural data."

"We must scale innovation, which begins with data, to enable a more sustainable future in agriculture," said Ralph Haupter, President of Microsoft EMEA. "Our collaboration with Bayer allows us to benefit from each other's experiences to empower organizations to address today's farming challenges."

Companies and organizations will be able to bring their solutions to Azure Data Manager for Agriculture and make them available for licensing, similar to how Bayer is offering these initial AgPowered Services as add-ons to Azure Data Manager's robust infrastructure and core capabilities.

Data models that drive Bayer AgPowered Services are built with publicly available data such as weather data, remote sensings such as satellite imagery, and decades of rich agronomic data from Bayer research and market development efforts.

Farmers who want to track disease, pest, and weed pressure, apply precision inputs, identify crop growth and production patterns, measure potential yield, track and capture carbon emissions, and analyze heat stress impact, rainfall, hail, and weather data can benefit from Azure Data Manager solutions.

Value chain partners will be able to apply insights into supply projections, sustainable sourcing, and ESG reporting by utilizing these cloud-based enterprise solutions. They will also be able to meet rapidly changing consumer preferences for fresh, high-quality ingredients thanks to data-driven insights that allow for the optimization of harvest, transport, and ripening processes, as well as advanced food ingredient traceability.

The collaboration between Microsoft and Bayer is a significant strategic step towards achieving Bayer's ambitious target of 100 percent digitally enabled sales in its Crop Science division by 2030, as well as accelerating the company's ability to bring new value and deliver outcomes-based, digitally enabled solutions to farmer customers.

-Bayer

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