Enabling Data-Driven, Sustainable Farming with Microsoft Azure Solutions
Adastra helped GoodLeaf Farms leverage Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics and Microsoft Power Platform to improve yield, reduce waste, and drive powerful business insights.
less water usage than conventional growers
abundant crops produced
genetic potential of seeds
Background and Challenge Story
Finding a Way to Better Leverage Massive Volumes of Sustainable Farming Data
Most commercial farms rely on hard work, heavy equipment, and the weather. GoodLeaf Farms relies on data.
“We have control over all the inputs and access to all the outputs,” said Juanita Moore, Vice President of Corporate Development at GoodLeaf Farms. “It’s a data-rich environment that offers the opportunity to optimize around ideal conditions and outcomes for the best possible quality and yield.”
The farm uses cameras to monitor seed growth and density while sensors track lighting, air quality, and growing media. These interconnected systems generate vast amounts of data. The farm is also bringing in new IoT equipment, which will further increase its data processing needs.
GoodLeaf needed a solution to help it manage all its data so employees could gain increased visibility into the farm, reduce waste, and improve yield. But no off-the-shelf solutions existed that would meet GoodLeaf’s needs.
Solution Story
Leveraging Microsoft Azure Solutions to Derive Actionable Insights from Farm Data
GoodLeaf was enthusiastic about Microsoft’s FarmBeats program, which enables data-driven farming by empowering farmers with advanced insights and technologies to improve production yields, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.
“Microsoft has the resources to assist our evolving industry, and that’s very important for us,” said Barry Murchie, President and Chief Executive Officer of GoodLeaf Farms.
However, they needed a flexible, responsive partner to implement Microsoft’s solutions so the farm could turn its data into business advantages. Microsoft recommended Adastra.
“We had done some initial work with our horticultural team to understand the scope and all of the variables we currently needed to consider,” said Moore. “We took that to Adastra, who really understood how data-driven farming works, what we were trying to do, and who had the expertise to put together a solution.”
SCALE AI, Canada’s supercluster dedicated to strengthening the country’s leadership role in AI and data science, was on board, providing $ 1 million in funding to develop the smart platform.
Adastra started by examining the big picture, including the farm’s operations strategy, production, financial management, and order fulfillment. Then, we implemented a Finished Good Inventory (FGI) platform to give GoodLeaf greater, real-time visibility into its operations. The FGI platform and other implemented technology include:
- Azure Synapse Analytics to streamline data acquisition, reporting, and management.
- Microsoft Power Platform to collect financial data. The platform also uses AI to optimize GoodLeaf’s inventory and order completion systems to help the farm reduce waste.
- Power Apps to help GoodLeaf collect, allocate, and monetize data so the farm can ship goods cost-effectively.
Following the implementation, Adastra continues to partner with GoodLeaf to adapt these technologies and help the farm achieve its long-term business and sustainability goals.
Impact
Streamlined Operations, Reduced Waste, and Improved Yield
Adastra’s solution has set GoodLeaf up to implement Azure AI and Azure Machine Learning. These solutions will help the farm continue to streamline and automate its operations and use its data more effectively.
Adastra and Microsoft have helped GoodLeaf achieve the following results:
- Greater visibility into its operations to make data-driven decisions
- Reduced waste by optimizing shipping and order processing
- Streamlined reporting, financial management, and order fulfillment
- Informed ways to optimize ideal conditions to get the best possible yield for their vertical farm
- Harnessed data from the Scale.AI project to develop improved substrates and seeds for vertical farming
- Progress made towards their long-term sustainability goals
- Improved efficiency and scalability on the Azure platform
In the future, GoodLeaf wants to grow existing plant varieties with higher nutrient values than conventional, open-field farming can achieve. The farm also wants to visualize data from its cameras and sensors to learn how to reduce its carbon footprint. Wherever the GoofLeaf team wants to go, Adastra and Microsoft can take them there.
