Description of Innovation: FarmMarket ID’s grower and farm database covers 2.8 million U.S. growers and over 320 million planted acres. Their innovation comes in the way that they contextualize that data through web-based applications for agribusiness professionals. By connecting farm fields to owners and operators, they can provide strategic insights to executives and decision-makers, market segmentation and customization to marketers, and individual grower information to boots-on-the-ground sales reps. Many agribusinesses, including seed companies, are using these tools to streamline and integrate their go-to-market processes to ensure they’re only targeting the right farmer with the right message at the right time.

Why it matters to the seed industry: Agribusinesses, seed companies included, provide vital support for farmers to be able to do their jobs. Yet every farm is unique, and has different needs based on the type of crops they farm, their acreage, the number of stakeholders involved, and external factors like weather and fluctuating commodity prices. The more focused seed companies can be in responding to each farm’s unique needs, the better off the market will be as a whole. Farmers’ time will be respected, and the marketing-sales process will ultimately lead to a purchase that provides the maximum value to each farmer.