Syngenta’s Jeremy Groeteke joins Margy Eckelkamp on The Scoop Podcast to discuss the shift from collecting data to taking action. Explore the three buckets of AI, the future of autonomous farming, and how retailers can overcome “data fatigue” to deliver real-world ROI and profitability to their grower customers.
The Reality of Data Fatigue
Question: We’ve kind of had this moment, perhaps, where some have felt data fatigued, but really, where are we in terms of data collection and how to optimize it for ag applications?
Groeteke: “Unfortunately, we’re still in a little bit of the fatigue. We’ve got data on data, but how often do retailers, growers, partners in that channel help and make decisions off of it, it’s pretty sporadic, frankly. The data’s there. The challenge we face is getting it to decision and action. The pretty maps of satellite imagery have been around for decades. It’s nothing new. But how do you turn that into action and decision? That’s one of the big things we’ve got to leverage and go forward. Some of the AI tooling is going to help with this. Some of it will also cause more frustration, so we’ve got to make sure we go after it in the right way.”
Breaking Down Silos: The Retailer’s Role
Question: What’s Syngenta’s approach to really breaking down how this data might be siloed? What would be the retailer’s role in helping really optimize data now and in the next 5 years?
Groeteke: “We have a digital platform called Cropwise that we deploy across the world. We see that as really connecting the ecosystems, whether you’re using soil samples, yield data, satellite imagery, and really leveraging it into action-based components. We’ve developed something that’s called anomaly detection. Instead of having to look at every single picture that comes across your farm, I only need to go look at the handful of fields that have a problem.
Retailers are the true network partner. They generally interface with the growers the most. I think retailers find themselves in a little bit of a dilemma always. Do they need their own digital brand and digital solutions, or do they leverage industry solutions? Some larger retailers can handle that, because it’s not cheap, and some of the smaller retailers out there struggle with that, and how do they partner with companies like Syngenta to bring these toolings to the customers.”
The Three Buckets of AI
Question: When you think about ag technology, specifically data collection, data utilization, how do you describe the era that we are in right now as really AI is being embedded into some of our work?
Groeteke: “I would describe it as a transition period. Let’s just put AI into three buckets. Descriptive AI is something we’ve been doing for a decade or longer. Take a picture and tell me what the disease is. Now we’ve had two new things come to the market: Generative AI, which is generating content, and Agentic AI.
On the generative side, we see this coming into really summarizing reports. Time savings is one of those largest components for return on investment. A generative large language model can look at all your notes for the season, and summarize that all into a coherent thought and readable context. We’re able to provide that with our Cropwise AI solution.
The third one is the agentic flow of AI. This is where you get into a lot more process automation components. The first wave of this will be internal improvements, helping automate individual processes. Then we will flip to external workflows. These workflows will be able to be automated, but I think it’s going to take us a little bit of time to kind of work through that. Operational efficiency and time investment is a big return on investment.”
The Mindset of Continuous Improvement
Question: How important is it for ag professionals to engage?
Groeteke: “The saying in AI today is, ‘if it’s not right today, it’ll be right tomorrow.’ Because of that constant improvement and just gaining more insight. Especially in Generative and Agentic, people need to take the mindset that if it’s not quite right today, it will be right tomorrow, because they are constantly improving.”
The Future of Prescriptive Tech
Question: How close are we to being able to move from some predictive-type systems to more prescriptive, real-time data usage?
Groeteke: “I mean, I would argue it’s already happening. A quote I’ve heard is ‘the future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.’ The fundamental problem is getting these prescriptive and predictive technologies more distributed.”
Call to Action: Focus on “Must-Haves”
Question: What’s your call to action for retailers?
Groeteke: “Grab the bull by the horns. If you have a mentality as a continuous learner, you’ll succeed, because everything’s changing at a rapid pace. Focus in on what’s going to drive a return on investment. Separate the nice-to-haves away from the must-haves. Very carefully hone in on the must-haves that help your grower base drive profitability. We’ve really got to kind of get rid of the nice-to-haves and focus on the must-haves that are driving profitability, whether that’s yield for a grower or efficiency for your spraying operations.”
Partnering for the Future
Question: What do you want farmers and retailers to know about Syngenta’s approach?
Groeteke: “Syngenta is here to partner with the growers and the retail channel. Ag’s in a tough spot. We’re here to partner and move agriculture forward, whether that’s digitally, with physical products of crop protection biologicals and seeds, we’re just here to make sure the industry moves forward.”
