LONDON, October 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

At last, agriculture and the broader food chain can start to benefit from the huge quantity of data it generates with the adaption of technology that has been at the forefront of global security requirements. 

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161011/427149-INFO )

There continues to be much discussion within the industry on the benefits of harnessing data and how this can be used to deliver better real-time management decisions, whilst ensuring better information to underpin longer-term decision-making.

We are all generating huge quantities of data, but the challenge has consistently been how this can be translated into meaningful decisions that begin to make a step change in fulfilling the genetic potential of animals and crops.

David Wilson, CEO of Proagrica, the leader in providing decision support to the global agriculture industry, explains, "we have entered a period in farming where data capture and interpretation is essential for successful farm businesses.  The technology and software is now available to connect and interpret data, bringing visibility to all and enabling the intelligence required for more productive and profitable decision-making."

Originally driven by advances in global security requirements, companies are now adapting the technology developed to deliver solutions for commercial industries.  Food production has been identified as a key beneficiary of this technology due to its complex interactions both in the production process itself and the infrastructure that delivers inputs, and supplies the end product to consumers.

Proagrica has been at the forefront of this advance and has developed an approach that provides a uniquely open and neutral platform for this technology to be adopted by the food industry.

"We have seen the same technology prove itself in other sectors and I'm excited to be able to see how the agricultural sector can benefit", continues Mr Wilson.  "We are literally just scratching the surface and I see the technology, under our Agility brand, providing huge opportunities for businesses to increase productivity, whilst creating the insight to allow whole supply chains to improve radically."

Proagrica has currently launched Agility Crops focused on the arable sector. Providing real-time insight into input usage, its timing and resulting impact on productivity, Agility Crops covers over 800,000 Ha of cropping across the UK.  For the first time, in-season analytics is available, providing the opportunity for real-time solutions, rather than waiting for full-scale surveys to provide a retrospective view, which can only be used historically. 

"The platform has the capability of harnessing information from many different sources", comments Mr Wilson.  "At present, it relies on Farm Management Software but we are working on connecting with many other sources such as weather stations, machinery, disease predictors which in time will combine to create enormously beneficial intelligence systems enabling farmers, their advisors and those across the supply chain to increase productivity and resilience within their businesses".

"In this new era, that we have termed 'Evidence-Based Production,' concludes Mr Wilson, "we feel that we are in a unique position to provide an independent solution, creating opportunity for all farmers, agronomists, suppliers and processors to increase efficiency and productivity to meet the undoubted challenges we face".

For more information go to http://www.proagrica.com

Notes to Editors 

Proagrica is a global division of Reed Business Information and the RELX Group, a FTSE 100 company. Proagrica provides critical decision-support to the global agriculture industry by delivering high-value insight and data, trusted workflow tools, proven integration technology and effective channels-to-market. We're proud of our market-leading brands in Europe, as well as a growing footprint in Australia, Asia Pacific, South Africa and the US. Our portfolio includes flagship media brands Farmers Weekly and Boerderij, as well as the latest in the integration and connectivity capabilities that F4F offers across the supply chain. We're known for our industry leading farm management software Farmplan and GateKeeper, but with an increasing need for actionable insight from data and analytics, we have been developing new products in this area under our Agility brand.

About Reed Business Information  

Reed Business Information provides information, analytics and data to business professionals worldwide. Our strong global products and services hold market-leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including banking, petrochemicals and aviation where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day.  RBI is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional customers across industries.
http://www.reedbusiness.com

About RELX Group  

RELX Group is a world‐leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs approximately 30,000 people of whom half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. The total market capitalisation is approximately 29.1bn GBP / 32.4bn Euro / 36.1bn USD.

For further information please contact: 
Snezana Petrovic
Chief Marketing Officer
Proagrica
snezana.petrovic@proagrica.com

Angharad Belcher
Account Manager 
rdp
abelcher@rdp.co.uk

SOURCE Proagrica