On today’s farm, a silo is more than just a place to store grain. It represents an isolated pocket of data, information that could dramatically improve crop yields and capitalize on consumer demand if properly channeled across the agricultural ecosystem.

The Weather Co., a subsidiary of IBM Corp., is looking to break down data silos and bring more information and artificial intelligence to farmers so they can make better decisions and improve yields.

“We have to get a handle on what farming practices drive better yield,” said Mark Gildersleeve (pictured), vice president and head of business solutions, Watson Media and Weather, at The Weather Co. “We’re not going to get that yield increase without having a much more data and an AI-driven approach to agriculture.”

Gildersleeve spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Lisa Martin (@LisaMartinTV), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the IBM Think event in San Francisco. They discussed the challenges facing today’s farmers and how the Watson platform can help improve agricultural efficiency on a global basis. (* Disclosure below.)

Solving problems with better decisions

The challenges facing farmers today are many. If it’s not weather problems or crop disease, there’s always government regulation and slim profit margins to round out their day. With the Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture, growers have an opportunity to leverage IBM’s capabilities and create a more efficient farm-to-fork ecosystem.

“We’ve got 13 to 14 different analytics and AI products embedded in our decision platform, all intended to give that grower a better recommendation on what the data tells us about their field,” Gildersleeve explained. “We can give them a much better guess than they have just based on their own personal fields experience.”

Using data gathered from satellite imagery, IBM can show growers where a crop is under stress. A smartphone photo can be quickly analyzed by Watson to determine what disease might be the cause. That information can then be relayed across the farming community to protect crops from further damage and keep yields high.

“It’s data, AI, decisions, and then connecting it across the ecosystem,” Gildersleeve said. “It’s a great IBM story.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the IBM Think event. (* Disclosure: The Weather Co. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither The Weather Co. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE