Singapore's Olam spreads 'smart farming' in Asia and beyond
Singapore's Olam spreads 'smart farming' in Asia and beyond
ipc 01/12/2017 3032
SINGAPORE/LAMPUNG -- On a sunny day in late July in Lampung, a rural farming town in the southern part of Indonesia's Sumatra Island, an employee of agricultural-goods trading company Olam International was busy making the rounds of cocoa farms, collecting data from farm owners."How old are your cocoa trees?" he asked. "What is your crop yield?" He pulled out his smartphone and tapped various details into an app, including a farm worker's age and his photo, plant types, tree ages and harvest volumes.The app is part of the Olam Farmer Information System, a farmer database that Singapore-based Olam hopes to introduce to 500,000 farmers worldwide by 2020. So far, more than 100,000 farmers in 21 countries in Asia, Africa and other regions have been registered in the system.
