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WWW.POTATOGROWER.COM 83 157023CSIChe12h.indd 1 11/13/15 9:04 AM Connecting various phases of production through IoT-based solutions is expected to have a major impact on agriculture. Several factors including lack of arable land, global climate change, scarcity of water, increasing regulatory pressure, and consumer demand for higher transparency create an environment where a connected farming operation can have a significant advantage. Ag technology is picking up speed—fast. Estes points out that ag tech deals and disclosed funding doubled and tripled, respectively, between 2013 and 2014. Since that time, there has been sustained growth, with more than $280 million invested in ag tech in 2016. Corporate technology has become increasingly important in ag technology. This participation is reflected in nearly a quarter of all ag tech deals in 2016 having a corporate partner, up from just 3 percent in 2013. The growth in connectivity is enabled by changes in several technologies. Some of these changes are the falling cost of IoT sensors, higher-quality LEDs, improved robotics, and a greater capacity to handle massive datasets. So, what does all this mean for production agriculture? Farming will become increasingly data-based, and these data will only have value if combined and aggregated in useful ways. Decision support systems that are fed by on-farm, machine-to- machine-derived data and adjunct data like weather and crop development information will allow farmers to understand what is happening on the farm at a higher level than ever before and to make the appropriate decisions for nutrient management and other practices. Digitization will also increase precision management to close existing yield gaps around the world and meet the food production challenges in the coming decades. This article originally appeared in the International Plant Nutrition Institute's Plant Nutrition Today newsletter in August 2017.