Technological advances and the application of novel technology to agricultural production continually surprise. Few days ago, Grupo Don Mario (GDM) and Microsoft, presented the OPTIMUS Program, whose objective is to help agricultural producers in the selection of the best seed for each of the lots destined for soy production. This presentation was made on the networks by the highest local authorities of each of the Companies.

In the explanation of Fernando López Iervasi and Ignacio Bartolomé it is highlighted that, with the contribution and work of PI Data Strategy & Consulting, they are beginning to organize and customize data from different sources, with the aim of increasing productivity and providing the producer of decision-making tools that allow you to better understand the exploited lots.

This challenging project is reached, with prior collaboration and complementation between these three actors. In the presentation to which we mention, it was said that GDM transferred all the information from its genetic improvement and R&D programs to the Cloud. Now Microsoft manages that information, and has made available to the Optimus Project tools that already existed: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Microsoft Azure.

The large volume of information that GDM had, which is essentially internal information, the result of its R&D, is processed, crossed and enriched with external data such as soil, climate, forecasts and characteristics of the lot with which it works.

But in this practical integration between leading companies, it is still necessary to mention the final recipient of the entire project, which is the producer, “the farmer”, owner or lessee of a rural parcel, which his experience allowed him to qualify with some limited precision.

In this frame of changes, another technological novelty is introduced, allowing a possible new link of collaboration: Google, or actually its Controller «Alphabet», has launched an autonomous vehicle project for agriculture, to monitor each batch and of each sown plant.

The «MINERAL Project», as it has been called, proposes the development, construction and reliable commissioning of a «buggy – robot» that runs through the plots, identifies and monitors each of the plants that exist in it and determines the height, area of ​​the leaves and size of the grains, among other data.

This buggy has already been field tested in the United States, South Africa, Canada and Argentina. The results, as indicated, have been satisfactory.

The autonomous Google, which is placed in a lot to be analyzed, and monitors it in its entirety, without damaging the soil or the existing plants in it, moves with total independence from any person, collects the requested data, and processes them or send where indicated.

The essential difference in terms of the information handled, between the MINERAL Project and the OPTIMUS Project, is that in the first case, whoever operates the property on which the study will be carried out must allow the entry of the autonomous buggy and the route their crops, so that the information can be collected; while in the second, the seedbed transfers its own information and is gathered and processed with other public information or public and general access.

In the case of MINERAL, the producer gives access to a property that operates an autonomous vehicle and should expressly allow his property information to be collected and processed by third parties, in order to later recover it himself.

In the case of OPTIMUS, the own information is transferred to the cloud, it is crossed with public information, it is processed by a third party and the results return to the original owner of the information.

But hypothetically, what would happen if the utilities and AI capabilities of MINERAL are added, processing the history of a productive batch, with those of OPTIMUS to recommend sowing, in the same batch that the buggy traveled the seed that best suits, according to the objectives sought by the producer ?.

Of course, the end result would be exceptional. No human brain can come up with the seed selection, planting, caring and harvesting answers that these two powerful tools put together can provide.

However, when technology advances, those of us who work with the rules of law begin to find questions that must be resolved: the information that MINERAL collected, without a doubt, is the property of the Producer, the Farmer.

The Farmer should have authorized the collection and use of it. But following this line of thought, the information resulting from the processing of that information in conjunction with OPTIMUS, should be the property of the Producer, or have this unlimited access to it.

Whoever manages the information of a plot or a planting area or a geographical area, will have a comparative advantage, which exceeds the mere production activity, and of course involves that of the real estate business. What rural broker and what investor will not want to have that information?

The challenge is presented: the complementation of systems, platforms and companies is good and very enriching, seeking to increase knowledge and greater productivity in this his productive sector of the economy.

But if the information flows, their ownership and their use are not managed correctly, free riders of the system will surely be generated (people who benefit without doing too much in relation to that benefit) and power imbalances within the system, given that whoever accesses the more information you will be better positioned for decision making.