Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Yara, a farming solutions provider, have entered into a strategic IoT (Internet of Things) partnership.

Through the partnership, Yara has planned to build its next-gen DPP (Digital Production Platform) in collaboration with AWS.

The DPP will help boost Yara’s production system, consisting of 28 sites (featuring 122 production units that use various production processes including ammonia, NPK, nitric acid, nitrate granulation, and carbon dioxide plants) and two mines.

The next-gen DPP will be utilizing AWS’ different services such as AWS IoT SiteWise, AWS IoT Core, AWS IoT Greengrass, and AWS IoT Analytics.

The other financial details of the partnership are not out yet. Also, the timeline on when the company plans to start the production of next-gen DPP is not known.

Marcus Furuholmen, VP of Digital Production at Yara, said:

“Yara’s vision is simple yet extremely powerful. Through our worldwide operations, we seek to contribute to a collaborative society, a world without hunger, and a planet respected. The digitalisation of our production system contributes to all these goals.

The new Yara DPP will help us substantially improve efficiencies, foster collaboration with partners on new business models, and, most importantly, increase the quality of our fertiliser products, which will lead to more mouths fed globally in a sustainable way.”

Bill Vass, VP of Technology at AWS, commented:

“We are proud to help Yara with its important mission to responsibly feed the world and protect the planet for years to come. The transformation of their production system is yet another example of how AWS helps and supports customers’ unique innovation endeavours.

The Yara and AWS collaboration will have a profound impact on Yara’s global production system. With AWS as its preferred DPP cloud provider, Yara gains access to the broadest and deepest set of cloud functionality, the highest performance and security, and the largest community of partners and customers of any other infrastructure provider.”

Optimization of crop production is important as it helps to ensure there is no food shortage to feed the increasingly overpopulated world while reducing the environmental costs. While performing this, IoT technologies play a key role.

Yara will, for sure, earn the benefits of AWS’s expertise in machine learning for predicting quality and optimal levels.

The company has also made some plans on using advanced technologies such as drones and other robotics techniques to improvise the software-based enhancements. Using such technologies will help avoid working at heights or in confined spaces, thus contributing to the safety of employees.