Chile
The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture is moving beyond promise to become a practical management tool. Baika is following this path with Chilean startup Neutral Farming, with which it has agreed to expand the use of its Co-Piloto Agrícola to more than 2,000 hectares in Chile next season. First implemented in 2023, the technology records, centralizes and analyzes agronomic information to reduce management time and optimize resource use.
Integrating and centralizing agronomic data in one place
One of the main problems facing farming teams is fragmented information, with irrigation, soil, production, weather and fertilization data spread across spreadsheets. To address this challenge, the startup developed a platform that integrates data from weather stations, irrigation systems and laboratories. It can even capture data through WhatsApp voice notes, which are processed and structured using artificial intelligence.
“Growers have all their agronomic and operational information consolidated in one place and can get immediate answers”
The platform generates automatic reports, alerts and forecasts for key nutrition and productivity parameters.
Operational and water efficiency: measurable impact in the field
According to Neutral Farming, the results are closely linked to operational efficiency and sustainability in two key areas. The first is time savings: farming teams save between 8 and 48 hours per week through automated analysis and centralization of manually recorded data. The second is water efficiency, with growers reporting reductions of up to 30% in water use in previously over-irrigated areas, without compromising production performance.
Real-time decisions and their impact on the sustainability strategy
The initiative forms part of the company's sustainability strategy.
“With real-time information, we can make more precise decisions about irrigation and nutrition, using resources more efficiently”
This strategic vision is supported by operational experience in the field. Andrés Valenzuela, Farm Manager at Valle Leyda, explains the tool's direct impact on daily management.
“Thanks to the platform's alerts, we have sometimes detected areas with lower-than-expected moisture levels, prompting us to review conditions across the entire farm and bring irrigation forward in good time. This has allowed us to make better-informed decisions and act before a problem affects crop development”
Step by step: scaling innovation
Implementation has followed a gradual, strategic approach, progressing through stages that validated results in controlled settings before expanding to larger areas. This methodology has been essential to reduce risk, optimize processes and generate insights that now enable a significant increase in reach and impact.
While the initial stage covered just over 400 hectares at Valle Leyda, this second phase involves implementing the technology across more than 2,000 hectares. This growth provides an opportunity to multiply the benefits seen so far, expanding analytical capacity, improving information accuracy and reducing response times in environments of greater operational complexity and geographic scale.
The project thus not only consolidates progress to date, but also demonstrates the potential of new technologies to transform large-scale agricultural management, providing more efficient tools for decision-making and operational sustainability.
These technological and practical management advances directly help reduce the carbon footprint and strengthen soil health. The agreement to expand Co-Piloto Agrícola to more than 2,000 hectares therefore represents one of the largest deployments of digital technology in Chilean agriculture, opening a new stage in establishing an efficient, data-driven farming model.