It used to be thought that agricultural activity was local, static and conservative. But these statements currently do not fully correspond to reality.

Today, the countryside, both in agriculture and livestock, is one of the sectors of the South American economy, more globalized and with greater dynamics in the incorporation of technology. The #AgTech phenomenon is a reality. Let’s look at some examples, the consequences of which have an impact on society, the economy and the law.

Agriculture has incorporated internet technology for years, which led to the development and use of platforms and applications to an unthinkable magnitude.

To mention just a few applications for cell phones, which run under Android or IOS platforms, I list the following: Atfarm (measurement of the level of biomass and fertilization with the assistance of satellite information), Farm Manager (registration and control of the procedure of machinery and supplies used ), Measure Maps (measurements with GPS technology), Yara ImageIT (measurement of nitrogen in soil), iSOYLScout (registration, by lot, of the state of the plots, with particular data of each one) and KALI-TOOLBOX (control of deficiency of crop nutrition).

All these applications necessarily work with OTT (Over The Top) technology, so to avoid conflicts with cell phone and data providers, and application stores, the relationships and considerations of each of the parties must be expressly agreed: some benefit from the investment made by the others, by using the previously assembled infrastructure, and the others benefit from the greater data traffic that they generate.

On the other hand, value chains in the agri-food sector are exponentially strengthened in their relationships. The information that necessarily flows along it is more important every day.

Nowadays, just by scanning a QR code of a meat container that is offered in a gondola in Kyoto, it is possible to obtain the total traceability of that piece, and to know that the cow that produced that cut was the daughter of a good mother, with prizes, that it was inseminated with semen imported from the United States, whose producer had a record of meat yields and that the animal in question grew in the Department of Flores and was slaughtered in a refrigerator in Florida, in Uruguay. Who owns all this information ?; Can its use be limited ?; Who has the right to make the use of it economically profitable? This is a matter of great economic relevance, which must be agreed and contractually fixed.

On the other hand, the proximity or distance of a rural producer with the crops that he grows or the animals that he raises, has ceased to be a determining factor of the success or failure of the activity. The immediacy with the activity has reduced its importance in the production process and in decision-making. Weather is remotely monitored, forecasts are available on the web, and crops and animals are controlled remotely.

At the same time, this availability of information and the possibility of making decisions remotely, well managed, reduce costs and maximize results.

As an example, which is not fiction, I propose the following: the hosting of a “Smart Contract” (or smart contract) allows “allocating” a value-added service in the place that can obtain the greatest tax benefit. In the case of the well-known agricultural insurance, which covers the climatic risk (excessive rain, drought, stone, etc.) of a crop, before the insured risk occurs, the insurance company must, prior to payment of the compensation, send a inspector to the damaged crop, to verify the damage it experienced, with the costs, which are not few, associated with the inspection

A self-executing Smart Contract could be applied to agricultural insurance, in the same way that exists in air flight delay coverage insurance. In this case, given the information from the airport of the flight delay, the payment of compensation for the covered risk is automatically triggered, and its accreditation in the bank account / card of the insured passenger, without human intervention.

In the case of Agricultural Insurance, for example, of a wheat lot in Azul, Province of Buenos Aires, we could think about the implementation of a Smart Contract, hosted in Montevideo, that would take satellite images of the crop / plot and cross them with the meteorological reports of the area and is nourished by the data of satellite flaggers. Established certain guidelines for damage floors and ceilings not to be verified in person, and with a computer «Oracle» that links the parameters of the Meteorological Service with the rest of the data of the current insurance contract, it could be triggered in the same way as in the case of flight insurance on time, its self-execution and the payment of compensation, eliminating the costs of the inspection. As a complement to this cost reduction, the hosting of the Smart Contract in Uruguay would allow the insurer to benefit from the tax benefits that computing has there.

The changes that take place in this sector in a very accelerated way, are not very visible outside it, but they increase productivity and reduce costs, which ultimately lower the price of final goods for consumers.

It is good to know that the no longer so traditional field is the engine of change, innovation and improvement that impacts all of society.