Rebuffed in an attempt to buy rival Syngenta, Monsanto executives “are seeking to re-position the company as a business built on data science and services, as well as its traditional chemicals, seeds and genetic traits operations,” says Reuters after interviewing chief technology officer Robert Fraley. Major shareholders are being briefed about the plan ahead of a presentation to investors in November. “We transformed from industrial chemical company to a biotech company, then to a seeds company. Now, we’re transforming again,” Fraley told Reuters.
Monsanto already is active in big data, which uses yield monitors and variable-rate applicators to identify the ideal amounts of seed, fertilizer and pesticides to use in each segment of a field. It purchased Climate Corp., a weather forecasting company, in 2013, and Precision Planting in 2012. But big data is a crowded field in agribusiness and with farm income on a steep decline, growers are wary of new expenses. Big data is a new field and there have been questions over who owns the data, the farmer or the vendor, and whether the information will be shared with outsiders.
Climate Corp.’s free data services are used on 22 percent of U.S. cropland but only a small portion of farmers have signed up for more extensive services that cost money, said Reuters.