Syngenta Group and Yara adopt Varda’s Global Field ID system

Norway-based crop nutrition company Yara and the Syngenta Group have entered into a partnership with agtech startup Varda, which was founded by Yara.

The two companies want to accelerate the adoption of Global Field ID, a new technology standard that helps facilitate field data discovery and data sharing in the agriculture and food industry, according to a news release.

Varda digitally maps agricultural land and assigns unique IDs to land plots, creating a "QR code for fields," delivered to users via an application programming interface (API), the release said. The aim of the service is to create a "common geospatial language" for the whole industry. 

Having a unique ID for every field is a necessary step to effectively collaborate toward a more sustainable, resilient and transparent food system, according to the release.

Today, farmers and agribusinesses use different formats to identify fields across their digital farming tools, which hinders interoperability and collaboration across industry, the release said.

For farmers, Global Field ID will mean improved connectivity between their digital farming tools and more efficient communication with stakeholders beyond the farm gate, the release said.

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The system will be used as an additional data layer within the companies’ own digital farming tools, building a shared reference framework to annotate field-level data, which is expected to generate multiple benefits, the release said: 

•  Enabling interoperability — A common identification system allows fields to be more easily paired by users and digital farming tools, resulting in increased connectivity and simpler data integration. This will also provide a benefit for farmers, offering improved data insights and cross-supply chain connectivity. 
• Increasing transparency around regenerative agriculture — Widespread adoption of a unique Global Field ID can significantly reduce risks of double-counting of land-based carbon sequestration or biodiversity improvement claims, enhancing the credibility and trust in land-focused climate finance and supporting existing verification protocols. 
•  Enhancing traceability — Assigning a shared identifier to each field will make it simpler to establish an uninterrupted chain between agricultural input, field practices and crop supply chains. 

The release said the service is currently available in France and the United Kingdom and will be progressively released in Brazil, the U.S. and key European agricultural markets in 2023, with plans for further expansion in coverage and features going forward, the release said.

“We believe that Global Field ID is an indispensable step to break ‘data siloes’ and make information sharing simpler, reducing time spent on information aggregation, accelerating the spread of precision agriculture and the mobilization of climate finance that are necessary to drive efficiency, while preserving soils long term health,” Davide Ceper, Varda CEO, said in the release. “We are proud to be partnering with two industry leaders recognized for their sustainability credentials and are eager to engage with many more companies to establish Global Field ID as an industry standard, accelerating the transformation of our food systems.” 

Feroz Sheikh, chief information and digital officer for Syngenta, said digital technology will help growers maximize yield, while taking care of the planet through sustainable farming practices.

“Working together with Yara and through Varda’s Global Field ID system we strive to improve connectivity between digital farming tools, making it more open, faster, and more efficient with the data owner's consent,” he said in the release. “We invite other industry players to join this collaboration to improve the interoperability of systems to the benefit of farmers and the entire innovation ecosystem.”