Alejandro Blaas Nacle
Courtesy of IBM
Farmers today are navigating the impacts of climate change, from weather to water availability.
Spanish entrepreneur Alejandro Blaas Nacle is using tech to help farmers protect their crops.
As CEO of Plataforma Tierra, he’s tapping data to help farmers make informed agricultural decisions.
This article is part of “The New Creators” series, a collaboration between IBM and Insider Studios that celebrates the visionaries creatively applying technology to drive change in business.
Climate change presents a significant challenge to people and animals across the globe. Natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes, rising sea levels, and glacial melting can have lasting implications on our species — and the future of the planet.
Few professionals understand the impact of climate change like farmers. Estimated temperature increases and reductions in water availability can minimize agricultural productivity. That’s especially true in Southern Spain, which recently experienced its driest season in years. But what if these farmers were equipped with technology that could help them to protect their crops, no matter what environmental challenges come their way?
Alejandro Blaas Nacle is at the forefront of the technology changing how Spanish farmers in the agrifood sector prepare for and respond to changes in weather and climate, pests, soil, irrigation, and more. He runs Plataforma Tierra, an initiative dedicated to improving agricultural processes through data gathering and knowledge sharing.
“We are trying to bring artificial intelligence and technology closer to our day-to-day lives.”
Using IBM’s environmental intelligence suite, as well as knowledge from agribusiness leader Cajamar, Plataforma Tierra combines artificial intelligence, weather data, climate risks, and other information to help farmers make more informed decisions about their crops.
Plataforma Tierra focuses on improving food production, sustainability, and profits. For example, Blaas Nacle and his team are currently working on a use case applying AI models to the irrigation forecast.
“Our farmers are using the platform to optimize irrigation, optimizations that in some cases have achieved a 15% reduction in irrigation,” he said. “We are trying to bring artificial intelligence and technology closer to our day-to-day lives.”
Plataforma Tierra can also help farmers calculate the optimal amount of fertilizer to use based on the crop type grown and the soil. There’s a tool to help farmers better understand their own soil management and a comprehensive pest-management tool.
Creating a community
We would like to be the one-stop shop for all farmers to learn, to gather and share data, and to execute with tools. Alejandro Blaas Nacle
Training and learning are an important part of Plataforma Tierra. Blaas Nacle ensures those using the platform understand topics such as working with the data available, the latest on market developments, how to optimize agrifood businesses, and how to make more informed operational decisions.
His primary goal for the platform was to create a close-knit community for farmers to share experiences and best practices. Launched in 2020, there are now over 6,000 members of the online community.
“We’re investigating the technologies and developing services and products and tools, but we’re also creating the community, creating the confidence,” Blaas Nacle said. “We are creating a place where people feel that we are doing the right thing. That community and the tools, at the end, should merge in a way that we all collaborate in sharing the data.”
By participating in this type of community, farmers can learn, for example, about a newly discovered disease or an issue with crops on a neighboring property. The entire farming community benefits from this knowledge because it gives them the chance to take preventative measures.
And if farmers encounter a pest, they can take photos and videos of their crops that they can then analyze through the platform.
“We combine that analysis of the image with another type of analysis,” Blaas Nacle said. “We try to experiment, investigate, and treat all this technology so we can concentrate it and deliver a product or a service understandable to our user without the need for very advanced technical knowledge.”
Addressing pests is just one way the community combines technology to navigate problems in the agrifood industry. It’s also used to help with diseased crops, as well as temperature and humidity variables.
“We would like to be the one-stop shop for all farmers to learn, to gather and share data, and to execute with tools,” Blaas Nacle added.
Freedom to make mistakes
Blaas Nacle says creativity has been critical to his success. That means being able to make mistakes and allowing the team he’s working with to do so, as well.
“You have to give yourself the freedom to go wrong,” he said. “You can’t think it’s going to go right the first time. If you have a team, you have to give your team the freedom to make a mistake, too. The mistake makes us better. It makes us work to find an alternative solution to something that has not worked.”
Blaas Nacle is driven by the desire to push his limits and look for new solutions. Often, his creativity shines brightest when he’s working under a tight deadline.
“I am really inspired by a lot of things,” he said. “But what really moves me is to know new worlds, to know new technologies.”
Learn more about Alejandro Blaas Nacle and IBM’s other inspiring new creators here.
This post was created by Insider Studios with IBM.