Agriculture relies heavily on science, with soil science, plant physiology, chemistry, climatology, and biology all playing important roles in achieving successful agricultural production. Field trials, also known as experimentation, have been integral to agricultural innovation for nearly two centuries, dating back to before the Green Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. Today, over 30,000 farms worldwide participate in on-field experiments, conducting around 150 million experiments annually and analyzing 2 million field trials each year.
Researchers use field trials to assess product efficacy, identify optimal conditions for performance, and explore future developments, making them a crucial driver of innovation within the industry. On-farm field trials, also known as “on-farm experiments,” allow farmers to test new products or production methods in the same setting where they would be used on a large scale, reducing potential risks. By continually experimenting and conducting field tests, farmers gain valuable insights into their land and can increase productivity year after year.
However, not all field trials are created equal. Next-generation, data-driven agriculture field trials will accelerate innovation, promote collaboration among stakeholders, and foster more sustainable farming practices.
Field Trials of the Future
Field trials are evolving in tandem with agriculture technology. When it comes to next-generation aspects, the fundamental principles of field trials will be retained. However, the outcomes and effectiveness will go further than ever before in supporting decision-making. Next-generation field trial technologies are paving the way for more powerful, collaborative, and effective field trials while building on today’s foundation of field trial success.
This will require researchers and agriculture professionals to abandon on-prem ag field trial platforms and utilize cloud-based, next-generation solutions. This shift will create limitless opportunities.
Instead of on-premises or legacy systems, cloud-based software is used to manage and run field trials for the next generation of agriculture. Users benefit from continuous improvement, scalability, backups, and simple configuration with this project management capability, which requires no installation and little onboarding. Managerial dashboards make project management tasks like annual planning, task management, and reporting simple and efficient to complete.
Next-generation field trial technology provides an efficient but adaptable platform for on-farm experiments. APIs are used to integrate with external data sources and interact with the environment. The system can connect to IoT sensors, spatial data, weather data, and other sources. Furthermore, global control with local configurations allows for easily customized experiences without involving developers or coding.
With next-generation field trial technology, a data-based approach is used, leveraging the data to drive innovation rather than focusing on the process. In agricultural field trial design, one way to do this is to use treatment combinations based on data to make sure the results are accurate from the start.
In next-generation trials, data collection takes on new meaning with mobile capabilities that enable timely, accurate, and secure data collection. Online and offline capabilities automatically sync with web app configuration, allowing for unlimited data collection and use.
Collaboration has always been an important part of field trials, and new technology that connects stakeholders in a unified platform will increase efficiency in trial planning, data collection, and analysis. Efficiency gains can be enjoyed both internally and externally with key partners through trial workspace sharing, task assignments, and better reporting tools. Next-generation field trial solutions make the user experience flexible for all trail contributors and allow the trial owner to have better visibility into trial operations and results.
Agmatix Fuels Field Trial Innovation
The Agronomic Trial Management solution enables next-generation agriculture field trials and fuels the development of new solutions to agriculture’s most pressing challenges. This digital, cloud-based, AI-driven solution offers a comprehensive planning process that enables users to conduct one-of-a-kind trials based on hundreds of customizable treatment combinations.
Users can see the status of the trial in real-time thanks to dashboards that are easy to use with clear communication channels that let trial owners, researchers, field technicians, or third-party contract labs like CROs work together on trials. Managing in-field data collection tasks and sharing data results in real-time ensures trial validity. Success becomes second nature when combined with protocol adherence. A next-generation mobile application delivers the best data management and collection benefits to handheld devices and more collaborators than ever before.
Data collection can be changed to fit the needs of the user and protocols. To detect outliers or anomalies, data can be viewed and validated in real-time. Furthermore, trial data can be easily shared in the platform stakeholders or exported to reports.
When the in-field aspects of the trial are finished and it’s time to dig into the trial results, Agmatix makes it simple to analyze and compare the results by utilizing pre-built statistical widgets. Agmatix’s AI-driven engine standardizes agronomic data and turns it into powerful insights.
You may be interested in:
Boosting Agricultural Output: The Impact of Digital Transformation and Data Analysis in Field Trials
Critical Factors Driving Trends in Field Trials Today
Revolutionizing Field Trials: Unleashing the Power of Advanced Cloud-Based
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Field Trials for Future Generations
Agriculture needs data-driven, next-generation solutions that speed up and improve innovation cycles, which are built around field trials. New technologies open up an infinite amount of data that can be used to push agriculture beyond where it has been before. Agmatix is committed to supporting researchers, agronomists, and growers with strategies for field trials that are data-driven and sustainable.
