Farmers don’t farm for the joy of record keeping, and yet it’s becoming a progressively more important part of participating in the industry. Increasingly, those records need to include records of the batch information of products stored and applied on the farm.
Recently, ADAMA Australia has taken a major step forward to ease some of the burden for farmers in capturing that batch information when using ADAMA crop protection products. The ADAMA range of products in Australia now carry a new 2D Data Matrix label with embedded information about the product and batch. When that label is scanned, the information can be ingested by a data system to store and record that data.
While end-to-end industry traceability and tracking the movement of products is becoming a global industry objective, ADAMA has decided to keep it simple and farmer-focused by starting at the farm. Andrew Newall, ADAMA AgTech and Innovation Manager said, “We want to make it as simple as possible for the farmer and let them easily scan an ADAMA product container. A farmer can then record the batch and date of production information straight off the label as its being loaded into a sprayer”.
This is where Proagrica has joined efforts with ADAMA by adding scanning capability to the Sirrus farm management app. A farmer using Sirrus can now simply scan an ADAMA container label and ingest valuable data like product ID, batch number, and date of manufacture straight into the record of application at the paddock level in Sirrus. This ensures that the record of application has an accurate copy of the exact product being applied and the key regulatory information needed in maintaining records. Proagrica’s Australia Business Development Director, Mark Pawsey said, “We are involved globally in some end-to-end supply chain initiatives running on our B2B network, but we really liked ADAMA’s approach of starting with the farmer”.
Now that Sirrus can read and record the data from an ADAMA container, the focus shifts to exploring new opportunities for this emerging technology and both ADAMA and Proagrica are looking at how else to leverage ADAMA’s investments in this new labelling technology. “We hope that other crop input manufacturers adopt this labelling approach to help farmers and the industry, and we are just happy that we can help lead the way,” said Mr. Newall.
“Starting at the farm allows the industry to consider how we can connect the dots and consider scanning products against a standardised industry product catalogue,” said Mr. Pawsey. “The Proagrica agX Platform of standardised product IDs, terminologies and pests is now integrated into ADAMA’s new label and it opens up opportunities for making farming and servicing farmers just that little bit easier,” said Mark.