Further evidence of the importance of connectivity to rural industries comes from an initiative designed to boost Brazil’s agricultural sector.
CNH Industrial N.V., a global leader in the capital goods sector, in partnership with seven other companies, has announced the development of ConectarAGRO, an initiative intended to consolidate and expand Internet access across all of Brazil’s agricultural regions.
The idea is to help rural producers to fully benefit from today's precision farming, digital and automated technological resources, while gaining access to a full range of new products and services enabled by connectivity.
ConectarAGRO will promote open and standardized technologies, which, says CNH, will allow more freedom and flexibility for the farmer, the ultimate user of these technologies.
For this initiative, CNH Industrial – whose brand portfolio includes major names in agriculture and commercial vehicles like Case, New Holland and Iveco – has partnered with AGCO, a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of agricultural equipment; pharmaceutical and life sciences giant, Bayer; Jacto, which produces equipment and solutions for precision agriculture in spraying and fertilizing segments, as well as coffee harvesters; Nokia; global agricultural technology solutions leader Solinftec; telecommunications giant TIM; and GPS technology leader Trimble.
It’s certainly a powerful line-up; it will be interesting to see how the initiative works in practice. CNH Industrial says that each company involved in ConectarAGRO will contribute its expertise and market experience to help create a favourable ecosystem and improve and develop conditions for connectivity in the sector. There will, however, be no joint development programmes, nor production or marketing of equipment, products or services by these companies, which will continue to operate independently, without combining economic activities or sharing risks or results.