Farming Industry
Agriculture has massive potential to leverage AI and interconnected technology to fuel efficiency and innovative growth.
Tomorrow's engineers must have cross discipline expertise; time spent learning to code should instead be invested in expertise in industries such as farming, biology, manufacturing and education.
Playbook
| Prompts | Questions | Reflections |
|---|---|---|
| Principles | What guides us? | First principles of ag value |
| Performance | Is it working? | KPIs, problems, opportunities |
| Protocols | How do we do it? | Standards, regulations, DePIN |
| Platform | What tools? | AgTech, land, infrastructure |
| Players | Who's involved? | Ecosystem and community |
Most Important Question
What happens when farming data becomes public infrastructure, ownership becomes fractionable, and physical assets generate their own digital twins?
The Transformation Thesis
Agriculture is transitioning from:
| From | To | Driver |
|---|---|---|
| Data-poor | Data-rich | DePIN sensors create continuous measurement |
| Weather-dependent | Weather-informed | Hyper-local forecasting enables precision decisions |
| Opaque supply chain | Transparent | Blockchain provides cryptographic provenance |
| Corporate-owned data | Farmer-owned | DePIN networks return data sovereignty |
| Periodic measurement | Continuous | Real-time sensors replace annual soil tests |
This is the Validated Virtuous Feedback Loop (VVFL): Physical infrastructure (DePIN) generates data, data feeds AI models, AI drives automated actions, automation creates value, value funds more infrastructure.
More sensors → More data → Better models → Higher yields → More sensors
NZ DePIN Opportunity
New Zealand has zero meaningful DePIN coverage. For agriculture, this means:
| Network | Device | Agricultural Use | NZ Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| WeatherXM | Weather stations | Hyper-local forecasting, parametric insurance, frost alerts | High - NIWA alternative, farmer-owned data |
| GEODNET | RTK base stations | Precision planting, autonomous tractors, drone spraying | High - Survey-grade positioning at fraction of cost |
| Helium | LoRaWAN hotspots | Soil sensors, livestock tracking, water monitoring | Medium - IoT backbone for remote farms |
| DIMO | OBD2 dongles | Fleet management, farm vehicle tracking | Medium - Tractors, trucks, UTVs |
The opportunity: Become the importer/distributor of DePIN devices for NZ agriculture. Partner with rural electricians and farm consultants to install. Farmers earn tokens from data while getting precision ag infrastructure at lower cost than centralized alternatives.
The Real Value: Public Standards Data
The key insight about DePIN isn't privacy — it's the opposite. DePIN creates public, verifiable, standards-grade data.
| Traditional Ag Data | DePIN Ag Data |
|---|---|
| NIWA charges for weather | WeatherXM data is a public good |
| Survey-grade GPS costs $10K+/year | GEODNET is shared infrastructure |
| Fonterra owns your production data | You own and earn from your data |
| Traceability requires auditors | Blockchain provides cryptographic proof |
| AI models trained on your data benefit corporates | AI models benefit the whole network |
Why public standards matter for agriculture:
- Weather as public infrastructure: Every farmer benefits from hyper-local weather data, not just those who can afford premium subscriptions
- Precision positioning as shared resource: Survey-grade accuracy for autonomous tractors, drones, and planting at a fraction of current costs
- Provenance without intermediaries: Cryptographic proof of origin, growing conditions, and handling for premium export markets
- Parametric insurance: Automated payouts triggered by verified sensor data — no claims adjusters
- Cooperative 2.0: Token-aligned coordination that extends the Fonterra model to data infrastructure
Navigate This Analysis
📄️ Principles
The immutable truths. Markets shift. Technology evolves. These don't.
📄️ Performance
Is it working? The problems, opportunities, and metrics that matter.
📄️ Protocols
How do we do it? The standards, regulations, and implementation patterns.
📄️ Platform
What tools? The land, infrastructure, and technology stack.
📄️ Players
Who's involved? The ecosystem and community dynamics.
📄️ The Plough
The introduction of the plough in agriculture had a significant impact on gender roles and religious practices in many societies, with effects that have persisted into modern times.
The Loop Applied
| Perceive | Question | Act |
|---|---|---|
| Weather data is expensive and sparse | What if every farm had a weather station? | Deploy WeatherXM network |
| GPS precision costs $10K+/year | What if positioning was shared infrastructure? | Install GEODNET base stations |
| Fonterra owns the data, farmers don't | What if farmers owned and earned from their data? | Build farmer-owned data networks |
| Supply chain provenance requires trust | What if provenance was cryptographic? | Deploy blockchain traceability |
Context
- DePIN — Physical infrastructure for data
- Real Estate — Related asset class with similar DePIN opportunities
- Tokenization — Programmable ownership
- Standards — Why public truth matters
Resources
- Van Trump Report — Agricultural market intelligence
- AcreTrader — Fractional farmland investing
- GEODNET — Precision positioning network
- Gallagher — Farm infrastructure
The Meta Question
"When farms can generate, verify, and monetize their own data streams without corporate intermediaries, who captures the value?"