In the field, data takes the lead: the new logic transforming crop production

In today’s agribusiness landscape, where margins for error are shrinking and both market and weather conditions demand precision, it’s no longer enough to adopt technology. What’s required is a new production logic. A logic built on data, connected to real field conditions, and driven by results.

That is the vision of DigiFarmz, an agtech company offering two main solutions: DigiFarmz Cropper, designed for farmers, and DigiFarmz Linkage, tailored for retailers, cooperatives, and agribusiness companies. Both are grounded in agronomic research carried out across multiple regions in Brazil, Paraguay, and the United States, ensuring that recommendations are truly representative of each customer’s reality.

Leonardo Furlani, Technical Coordinator of Research and Development at DigiFarmz, summarizes the challenge: “Every recommendation we deliver comes directly from the field. We conduct trials every year to keep our information up to date, gathering results under different sowing windows, climates, and genetics, so that the outcomes are reliable, representative, and cover the widest range of conditions possible.”

Since 2019, DigiFarmz has conducted more than 600 field trials in over 45 locations across Brazil, Paraguay, and the U.S., evaluating more than 250 varieties and hybrids. This work continues a research effort that began in 1999 with agronomist Ricardo Balardin, PhD and CRO of DigiFarmz, resulting in a unique, extensive, and highly reliable dataset focused on maximizing yields in annual grain crops.

These studies serve different purposes: validating whether DigiFarmz recommendations perform in the field, testing new technologies, products, and varieties, and exploring integrated production systems that account not just for one season, but for the long-term impact of decisions over several years.

Furlani points to practical examples: planting the same crop in consecutive seasons increases pest and disease pressure; repeated use of the same chemical accelerates resistance development; while cover crops, in addition to protecting soil and improving nutrient cycling, can significantly raise yield potential. “There are gaps in production systems that, when properly addressed, generate real economic return. Our role is to continuously feed our databank with concrete, field-based information, tailored to each farmer or company, so that DigiFarmz algorithms can deliver measurable value to our clients,” he explains.

Starting in September, DigiFarmz will launch a new line of research: long-term, systems-based trials conducted in a single area, where crop rotation, soil fertility, plant nutrition, pest and disease management, and economic performance will be analyzed together. The project will run for at least five years, with the goal of proving in practice what theory and experience already suggest—that viewing the production system as a whole is the key to sustainable yield and profitability.

DigiFarmz’s mission is to provide farmers and agribusiness companies with a technical, context-driven decision model that reduces risk and maximizes results. As Furlani defines it: “It’s not just about using technology—it’s about changing the way we produce.”