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 Châtenay-Malabry (FR - 92290), 29 March, 2021 EFITA newsletter / 978 - European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment Do not miss the Virus Jokes in English and French The informatique-agricole.org site now offers you the possibility of subscribing the RSS feeds of its two newsletters See RSS feeds to implement to ensure that you continue to receive this newsletter To unsubscribe this newsletter, please contact me directely: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net if this link Unsubscribe does not work. Please note that I changed the presentation of the links that are embedded in the name of the web service. 
To correspond with me (GW), please use this address: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net To subscribe the efita newsletter (please ask your friends and colleagues to test this link) Efita Newsletters subscription Brain Test - Move Only One To Make A Square! Êtes-vous fort en maths ? A curiosity: US federal court rules that hydroponic produce can be certified organic, AFN, by Jack Ellis See agfundernews.com Human Progress Weekly newsletters about ICT in Agriculture in English and French Both newsletters have around 14000 subscribers. >>> Last weekly EFITA Newsletters in English (created in 1999) Efita Newsletters >>> Last weekly AFIA Newsletters in French (created more than 20 years ago in 1997) Afia Newsletters >>> Statistics for the last efita newsletter >>> Last issue of the afia newsletter >>> Last available satistics for the afia newsletter the covid-19 pandemic, seen from the angle of excess mortality (Source The Economist, 3 weeks ago)
Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Hoeing turnips par Sir George Clausen
Precision seeding – effective, but expensive Given the expense of precision seeding machinery, growers may need to do some hard ROI calculations to determine whether savings can actually recoup the expense in a reasonable time. See futurefarming.com Seen on the futurefarming.com web site The invention and adoption of autosteer technology Precision planting improves yield and saves on seed costs Overview: New seed drills and precision planters Precision seeding for higher yields and less weeds Measuring soil compaction at planting Precision farming on the prairie
Why autonomy hurts big tractor manufacturers? 17 years ago Gerrit Kurstjens witnessed the first demonstration af an autonomous John Deere tractor in Australia. It should be for sale in 2022. But it feels like next year never comes. See futurefarming.com Field robots: Elatec E-Tract ready to launch electric tool-carrying robot The E-Tract is a generic tool-carrying robot with two positions for attaching implements. See futurefarming.com Data management: New Holland updates MyPLM Connect Farm platform Users can view field-specific data, such as activity layers, scouting observations and soil zones. See futurefarming.com Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Café au jardin par Daniel Ridgway Knight
How did we the future yesterday?? See the incredible collection developed by Alain Fraval Crop science: Device communicates with plants using electric signals Farmers could take preventive steps to protect their crops, using the plant 'communication' device. See futurefarming.com Crop sensing: CNH and Augmenta partner in crop sensing and automation Augmenta’s technology will be available globally through the CNH Industrial AGXTEND portfolio. See futurefarming.com Autosteer kits: The invention and adoption of autosteer technology Which retrofit systems can you choose from today? We asked 14 suppliers about their solutions. See futurefarming.com Nothing
is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Moulin
de la Reine, Østervold, par Paul Gauguin, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek,
Copenhagen, Denmark
Precision seeding: Effective, but expensive Hard ROI calculations needed to determine if investment is warranted. See futurefarming.com ‘China’s largest ag platform’ reports bumper growth, founder quits for foodtech, AFN, by Jack Ellis Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang has resigned from his roles as chairman and director of the Chinese agrifood e-commerce platform, just as it reported better-than-expected financial results for the past year. In a statement, Pinduoduo said that Huang stepped down “to pursue research in the food and life sciences, disciplines where breakthroughs could drive the future of China’s largest agriculture platform.” See agfundernews.com Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Fendeur de bois, par Millet Jean-François (1814-1875)
Self-driving electric tractor startup Monarch raises $20m Series A funding, AFN, by Lauren Manning Autonomous tractors may seem like a futuristic idea. But if you want to sell one to a farmer, don’t call it a robot, says Monarch Tractor co-founder and CEO Praveen Penmetsa. “Five years ago we came up with a very futuristic-looking machine. What we learned is that the tractor is a very emotional shape – farmers love their tractors [the way they are],” he tells AFN. “So we had to throw away our futuristic drawings. Now, our tractor is still a tractor. The farmer can use it with their existing implements and see the value the moment it hits their field.” See agfundernews.com Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Le Pouldu, 1890, par Paul Gauguin (Londres, National Gallery)
Tractor retrofitter Augmenta raises $8m in Series A round led by CNH Industrial, AFN, by Jack Ellis Augmenta — a Paris-headquartered startup which retrofits tractors with ‘smart’ tech capabilities — has raised $8 million in Series A funding, co-founder and CEO George Varvarelis told AFN. Capital goods company and manufacturer of agricultural machinery CNH Industrial led the round. Amsterdam-based impact investor Pymwymic also participated in the round alongside Augmenta’s existing backers, France’s HCVC and Greece’s Marathon Venture Capital. The startup previously raised $2.5 million in an October 2019 seed round. “CNH Industrial’s M&A team and I met at the Agritechnica trade show in Hannover, Germany, in November 2019. We instantly connected because we share a vision of agricultural technology without silos that prevent innovation,” Varvarelis said. See agfundernews.com AgriDigital, Australia, provides a digital platform for the grain supply chain… …including a grain tracking program that enables growers to track and trace their harvest, inventory, and sales. See agridigital.io Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory (?????): La chevrière par Alphonse Moutte (1840-1913)
Escavox, Australia, uses smart trackers to collect data… …related to time, temperature, and location of fresh produce and meat products as they travel through the food system from farm to retail shelf. See escavox.com FarmSee, Israel, develops precision livestock monitoring… …and growth optimization products based on advanced computer vision and neural networks. See farmsee.com SWAN Systems, Australia, is a precision irrigation tool… …developed to optimize water and nutrient use, including precise irrigation scheduling, monitoring of crop health, and tracking progress against water and nutrient budgets. See swansystems.com.au Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Hay cleaning, 1958, by I.A. Krylov
Successful collaboration on AGROVOC between FAO and University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy) Since the 1980s, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) manages and publishes the AGROVOC Multilingual Thesaurus, which thematically covers FAO’s areas of interest with more than 39 000 concepts and 800 000 terms organized hierarchically. When launched, AGROVOC was made available in three languages – English, Spanish and French – and its purpose was to serve as a terminology for the indexing of publications in agricultural science and technology. AGROVOC has now been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and 35 non-FAO languages. Currently, AGROVOC is a valuable instrument for data to be classified homogeneously, fostering interoperability and reuse in information systems. In recent years, an increasing number of information systems in food and agriculture utilize AGROVOC for a broad range of uses, including indexing geospatial and statistical data. By using AGROVOC, organizations strengthen data interoperability across its different databases and knowledge systems, spanning multiple languages and domains, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness while avoiding information silos. An essential part of the AGROVOC e-infrastructure is the collaborative editing platform VocBench, a free and open-source collaboration environment for creating and maintaining Knowledge Organization Systems such as thesauri, code lists, ontologies and taxonomies. VocBench is managed by the ART (Artificial Intelligence Research) Group of the University of Tor Vergata, in Rome. VocBench is currently being used by several organizations, such as UNESCO, the European Commission and the Senate of the Italian Republic. Furthermore, VocBench has acquired much more visibility and potential for adoption since it became the reference platform of the European Union, recommended by the European Commission to its member states for the collaborative management of open data repositories. Since 2018, FAO has established an official collaboration with the University of Tor Vergata to assure professional services related to the hosting and maintenance of FAO services for knowledge management, publication and fruition of the AGROVOC thesaurus. This cooperation has brought tremendous successful results with a substantial increase of the use of AGROVOC during the last years, with more than 36 million accesses in 2020. Due to the improved reliability of the technical infrastructure, provided by the University of Tor Vergata, FAO has been able to enhance the accessibility and visibility of AGROVOC globally and also strengthen the collaboration with other stakeholders. Up to 25 national and international organizations worldwide support the language and thematic coverage of AGROVOC through an editorial community. See fao.org AGROVOC AGROVOC is the largest Linked Open Data set about agriculture available for public use and facilitates access and visibility of data across domains and languages. It offers a structured collection of agricultural concepts, terms, definitions and relationships which are used to unambiguously identify resources, allowing standardized indexing processes and making searches more efficient. AGROVOC uses semantic web technologies, linking to other multilingual knowledge organization systems and building bridges between datasets. See fao.org
How Brazilian Farmers Are Realizing the Potential of Satellite Imagery Contributing writer Mauricio Nicocelli Netto discusses how he's using the Granular Insights service to help his grower customers achieve better yields. The use of satellite imagery in Brazilian agriculture has evolved over the past decade. At first, it was commonly used in southern and southeastern Brazil. But in the last 3 years many agtech companies have made it more available to consultants and producers to use throughout Brazil, which has also coincided with an increase in the quality of this technology. In particular, I have observed the growth in satellite imagery use by producers in the Brazilian Cerrado, the center and west region of the country, where we have some of the largest soybean growers. I always say that from the beginning of the harvest, it is essential that these producers are guided to monitor their production areas, identifying problems in advance and making decisions at the right time, thus obtaining better results. In 2020, I started using the Granular Insights service, which is already widespread in the U.S. Some of my customers have started to understand the potential of this technology to achieve better yields. I really enjoy using the example below to illustrate this point to my grower customers. When we follow the soybean culture as the plant grows, we can notice a high vegetation index. In this phase, which extends from V1 to V5, the producer must constantly monitor his fields, where, in this example, it is possible to identify the presence of weeds on the soybean. …/… See precisionag.com FMC Receives Industry-First Approval for Drone Use of Prevathon Insecticide in the Philippines This is the first time a crop protection product has been given approval for drone use by the country’s Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority. See precisionag.com This Winery and Tomato Processor Used Artificial Intelligence to Make Their Crops Better Learn how The Morningstar Company is using new ag technologies based on AI to help improve farming decisions. See precisionag.com Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: La glaneuse, par François Alfred Delobbe
Bill Gates tells Reddit why he’s bought so much farmland! AFN, by Jack Ellis Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates responded to questions about his farmland investments during an ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) session on social media platform Reddit this weekend. It’s the first time Gates has publicly commented on land purchases made by entities associated with him and his wife Melinda since they were named as the top private owners of US farmland by acreage earlier this year. Gates was speaking to Redditors during an event marking the release of his new book, ‘How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.’ See agfundernews.com Israeli company claims oral COVID-19 vaccine on its way An oral vaccine could potentially allow for people to self vaccinate at home. See jpost.com
Our Culture is Turning Us into a Bunch of Hyper-Aggressive, Homicidal Maniacs. We have to correct course. By Jessica Wildfire .../... There’s a bunch of angry people out there who feel completely abandoned by a culture and economy that increasingly values things over people. Entire industries are built around profiting from collective anger and isolation, and we make it super easy for everyone to buy guns. See aninjusticemag.com The Only Dirty Thing European Soil Data Centre Newsletter No.129 (Apr 2021) See esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu Latest Data Show Bees Are Still Thriving At An Alarming Rate, By Hank Campbell The latest numbers on honeybee colonies have been released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and they show that the Beepocalypse we keep being warned about has been postponed for another year. Instead of going extinct, as activist fundraising campaigns assured us would happen unless efficient targeted seed treatments were replaced by mass spraying of plants with antiquated pesticides still certified “organic”, bees are doing great. The only fluctuations are “statistical wobble” that can happen any time – or due to economics. .../... See science20.com Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Paysanne par Charles Sprague Pearce
Who knows if these are true or not … but we all need a good laugh! These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while the exchanges were taking place. Case 1 ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning? WITNESS: He said, 'Where am I, Cathy?' ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you? WITNESS: My name is Susan! Case 2 ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact? WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks. Case 3 ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active? WITNESS: No, I just lie there. Case 4 ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth? WITNESS: July 18th. ATTORNEY: What year? WITNESS: Every year. Case 5 ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you? WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which. ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you? WITNESS: Forty-five years. Case 6 ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory? WITNESS: I forget.. ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot? Case 7 ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning? WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam? Case 8 ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he? WITNESS: He's 20, much like your IQ. Case 9 ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken? WITNESS: Are you shitting me? Case 10 ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time? WITNESS: Getting laid Case 11 ATTORNEY: She had three children , right? WITNESS: Yes. ATTORNEY: How many were boys? WITNESS: None. ATTORNEY: Were there any girls? WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney? Case 12 ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated? WITNESS: By death.. ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated? WITNESS: Take a guess. Case 13 ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual? WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female? WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male. Case 14 ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney? WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work. Case 15 ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people? WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight. Case 16 ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to? WITNESS: Oral... Case 17 ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body? WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time? WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished. Case 18 ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample? WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question? And last case: ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing? WITNESS: No.. ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? WITNESS: No. ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor? WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar. ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless? WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law. See facebook.com Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Le repos par Émile Renard (1850-1930)
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