Bayer seeks to 'connect' the field

Connectivity and digitalization of agriculture in Mexico can generate greater productivity in the field, with a 30 percent reduction in inputs, a 20 percent reduction in costs and up to a 15 percent increase in crop yields, according to the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT).

In line with this data, Bayer, specialized in the manufacture of health and agricultural products, seeks to increase production in the Mexican countryside by up to 50 percent by digitalizing operations in the sector in the coming years, through the use of tools such as Artificial Intelligence, big data and the Internet of Things (IoT), commented Abdalah Novaes , head of Digital Agricultural Solutions for Latam at Bayer.

However, the main obstacle in Mexico to achieving this goal is Internet coverage, because only 18 of the 32 states in the country where there are agricultural production units have access to the Internet, and only 7.8 percent of agricultural producers have digitalized their operations.

“The adoption of technologies in the field is very slow; there are many challenges that still make the adoption of new technologies in the field difficult, either because producers do not have the skills or because they do not have the capacity to adopt these technologies much more quickly,” said Marco Antonio Oropeza , technical secretary in the Agricultural and Livestock Coordination of the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader).

During the presentation of FieldView, Bayer's new software to digitize operations in Mexican agriculture, the official stated that another problem to be solved in order to digitize agriculture is the generation gap.

“Currently, the average age of farmers is over 55 years old, which makes it very difficult for us to adopt new technologies, but also for them to learn how to use them, because there are many producers who do not even have a cell phone,” the official explained.

Despite these challenges, Bayer hopes to cover around 80,000 hectares of land with its technology by August 2025, where it hopes to improve yield by up to 10 percent in the first few months.

Continuing with good news, the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris), headed by Armida Zúñiga Estrada , approved a treatment for Alzheimer's, a dementia that affects at least 1.3 million people in Mexico alone, but could be 3.5 million by 2050. It is a therapy called Donanemab, developed by the pharmaceutical company Lilly, headed here by Karla Alcázar Uribe , which establishes a milestone that will benefit both patients and their families and caregivers, via health professionals, who will have this new alternative in their therapeutic arsenal. Mexico is the fifth to obtain authorization after the United States, Japan, Great Britain and China, from the firm based in Indianapolis, Indiana, which has allocated 13 billion dollars in research for the development of innovative therapies for this disease, which affects 7.8 percent of people over 60 years of age.

In the fourth quarter of the year, Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASUR), headed by Adolfo Castro Rivas , increased its net profit by 37.2 percent annually, with earnings of 3,589 million pesos. Meanwhile, its revenues rose to more than 9 billion pesos, an increase of 31.2 percent annually. ASUR suffered, in the Mexican market, from a lower flow of passengers to and from its most important airport: Cancún.

On February 26th at Expo Guadalajara in Jalisco, the Mexican Accreditation Entity (EMA), chaired by Raúl Tonel y Cruz , will hold the Standards and Accreditation sessions in Jalisco, Durango and Yucatán to raise awareness of the importance of compliance with norms and standards. The meeting will bring together representatives of state authorities such as Profepa, as well as business chambers, among others.