“For any country, but especially for Mexico, the agribusiness industry should be treated as a matter of national security, as it is directly linked to the social, economic, and political stability of the country and it is one of the sectors that generates the most jobs.” – Sergio Alanis Rueda

In an engaging and disruptive interview for Veggies from Mexico, Sergio Alanis Rueda discusses various topics currently driving change in the fresh produce industry, such as cognitive agriculture, regenerative agriculture practices, and new solutions involving Artificial Intelligence that could positively transform agriculture.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most adaptable to change.” – Charles Darwin.

In this sense, as Darwin states, the companies that survive, the ones that win, are not the strongest, but those that adapt best to change.

We invite you to read this fascinating interview in full below:

Sergio Alanis Rueda, originally from Morelia, Michoacan, is an Industrial Engineer from the National Technological of Mexico (Tecnologico Nacional de Mexico, Campus Morelia), with a Master’s Degree in Analysis and Management of Technological Innovation from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and a specialty in Senior Management of Private Equity Funds from the Pan-American Institute of Senior Business Management (IPADE, Instituto Panamericano de Alta Direccion de Empresa).

1. Could you share with us a little about your professional experience?

I have been fortunate to work in different industries. I have 17 years of experience in the agribusiness industry.

I co-founded a company that patented the process to achieve the “Avocado Powder” product in Mexico and the USA. It was listed among the most innovative products in the world at the SIAL Paris 2012 international exhibition.

Without a doubt, working in the agribusiness industry has been the most challenging experience I have had. You work with a living product that you must take care of properly, and trying to control it like an inert material can be very frustrating.

I worked in Spain facilitating creative problem-solving processes for companies such as Mondragon Corporation and Telefonica.

In Mexico, I worked in a Technology Innovation Management Consulting Firm, with projects in the pharmaceutical industry (Pfizer, Schering-Plough, Boehringer Ingelheim) and the food industry (Herdez Group and Danone).

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I was also a consultant and external advisor to medium and large companies in the agro-inputs industry. I served as a Senior Consultant for the World Bank.

I have been an investor and operator in digital services and consumer products companies, and an advisor to a private investment fund specialized in agribusiness.

For the last four years, I have been the Co-Founder and CEO of Norman Agricultura Cognitiva.

2. How important do you consider the agri-food sector to be in Mexico? What are the main challenges you consider growers face today?

For any country, but especially for Mexico, the agribusiness industry should be treated as a matter of national security.

The sector is directly associated with the Nation’s social, economic, and political stability. It is one of the sectors that generates the most jobs. Many agri-food products are part of our cultural identity and contribute significantly to the GDP and the trade balance.

Our geographic position, the volume, quality, and destinations of our agro-exports, combined with geopolitical conflicts in other parts of the world, place us as a fundamental piece of the world’s largest economies.

The main challenge I predict for growers in Mexico and worldwide is the ability to adapt to change. The ability to recognize, let go of, and modify routines and paradigms that are no longer optimal, and to generate new routines and paradigms that build a sustainable future.

Climate change is severely affecting crops and the growers’ economy.

Agriculture is the third largest generator of greenhouse gases; but agriculture is also one of the great solutions to reverse climate change if we achieve the transition to a preventive and regenerative agriculture.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-ghg-sector?country=~MEX

Reactive agriculture continues to be practiced, which can waste up to 60% of the genetic potential; and in many cases, we want to fix everything with inputs, without first stopping to understand the interaction of PASTA better known as the soil–water–plant–atmosphere system (SWPAS) 

Access to labor and water presents increasingly difficult challenges, as does access to competitive and timely financing.

More than half of the national territory presents some soil degradation or water contamination. This is where a public policy with a medium and long-term vision is pertinent.

Other Latin American countries are climbing key positions in export markets by taking advantage of the opening of markets, technology, and the training of their labor force.

It seems that the agribusiness industry in Mexico is entering the perfect storm, but if we turn this storm into an engine, we can go further than we ever imagined.

Other Latin American countries are climbing key positions in export markets by taking advantage of the opening of markets, technology, and the training of their labor force.

It seems that the agribusiness industry in Mexico is entering the perfect storm, but if we turn this storm into an engine, we can go further than we ever imagined.

3. How important do you think innovation is for companies in Mexico?

Innovation is a Darwinian issue:

“The companies that survive, the ones that win, are not the strongest, but those that adapt best to change.”

Companies are magnifiers of the virtues and defects of their leaders.

That is why the cognitive capacity of the people who lead within companies is key.

Not only how they learn. Also, the flexibility and speed to unlearn models that are no longer optimal.

Innovation drives not only the growth and competitiveness of agribusinesses but is also key to ensuring the sustainability and resilience of the sector in the current context.

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4. What does it mean for companies to promote cognitive agriculture?

The cognitive termis the mental action by which the individual (in this case, the grower) assimilates ideas, creates models, and reconfigures them until knowledge is built.

Cognitive agriculture is not about inputs but about understanding, in a growing way, the functioning of nature in the interaction between plants, water, soil, and weather.

In traditional agriculture, to obtain the result (PHENOTYPE), we start with the selection of GENETICS (often for cost and not for agronomic relevance); and then we jump to an agronomic management based on INPUTS (Fertilizers, Insecticides, Herbicides, Fungicides, Nematicides, Improvers, Stimulants, Rooting, Regulators, etc).

The function of drainage and irrigation is little understood, and the general practice is to try to solve all the problems just by applying products.

In this leap, the most important thing is overlooked: Understanding Plant, Water, Soil, and Atmospheric Weather INTERACTION.

Is the reason unknown?

No… That knowledge has been around for two centuries and is even taught in school to agronomists.

So why is it not taken in consideration?

We need to go back to understanding the natural processes of the plant. Today the cost and power of technology allow it.

By not doing so, we have killed the fertility of our soils, polluted our water, and hurt our bank account.

5. What is Norman Cognitive Agriculture and what are the main services it offers?

Norman Cognitive Agriculture is a software that helps growers in making agronomic decisions, especially those growers who want to make the transition to preventive and regenerative agriculture.

We are a new generation of ADSS (Agricultural Decision Support Systems) that evolved from monitoring different data sources, to personalized and specific agronomic management recommendations to achieve the objectives of yield, quality, profitability, and sustainability of the agricultural production unit.

The two main services we offer:

– Static Productive Capability Index (PCI): A “snapshot” that identifies and evaluates the main physical, chemical, biological, and atmospheric constraints that limit the genetic potential of the crop and the fertility potential of the agricultural production unit.

It includes relevant indices of soil health, water, rapid detection of pest and disease susceptibility, potential efficiency of agricultural inputs, nutrition and biodiversity.

In addition, it provides the growers with customized and specific recommendations for the agricultural inputs they will need to release the constraints that limit the genetic potential of their crop and the fertility potential of the agricultural production unit.

For any investor in an agricultural production unit, the static ICP should be part of their agronomic due diligence.

– Dynamic Productive Capacity Index (PCI): This technological service moves from a “snapshot” to a “movie” of actual water and nutrient consumption needs as absorbed by the plant.

We change the dominant paradigm from kg per hectare of fertilizer to nutrient concentration in the soil solution, as absorbed by the plant.

The growers continue to receive personalized and specific recommendations of the agricultural inputs they need, in the quantities and at the time they need them. As well as agronomic management recommendations in six critical areas for any farmer: Phenology, Fertility, Nutrition, Irrigation, Pests, and Diseases.

6. What are the main crops you work with in Mexico?

Berries: We operate our own and third-party farms using Norman Cognitive Agriculture technology, which has allowed us to generate average savings of 80% in inputs vs. a traditional grower. With fruit quality that pays up to 2.5 times the conventional price. This gives us a better margin of maneuver to solve the labor issue.

We do not operate, but we provide technology services in avocado, grains, and citrus.

7. How can AI solutions improve the efficiency of agricultural companies in Mexico, and what are the most important applications they should consider implementing?

I could classify the solutions into three levels, according to the level of training that AI requires:

1.       Finding faster generic and customized answers that were already solved by someone else.

2.       Faster finding generic and customized answers that have not been solved by someone else.

3.       Finding generic and custom problems faster that we didn’t know were critical problems.

Some of the main agronomic applications:

Crop Optimization: AI can help analyze data to understand how nature works in plant-water-soil-weather interaction.

Pest and Disease Control: AI-based systems that analyze images and data to detect crop problems.

Input purchase optimization: AI can generate prescriptive models to change the information asymmetry that exists between the farmer and the input supplier. So that he only buys what he really needs, when he needs it, with the best cost-benefit ratio.

Operations Optimization: AI Management Models for easy filling and access to field logs, expense, and cost control, including labor management.

Digital Twins: to break the paradigm of 100 lessons. AI-based predictive models can help estimate yields, timing, and crop profitability. Improving supply chain planning.

Predictive Maintenance: In agricultural machinery, AI can predict failures before they occur, scheduling necessary maintenance and avoiding downtime.

Market Analysis: AI tools can analyze market trends and consumer behavior, allowing companies to adjust their production and marketing strategies.

Logistics and Distribution: Solutions that optimize the supply chain, from harvest to distribution, using AI algorithms to improve efficiency.

8. What do you think about regenerative agriculture, how has it been implemented in Mexico, and do you think it is financially viable for agricultural companies?

I will answer this question with another question:

Does the production of a crop depend on an input, or the interaction of PLANT-WATER-SOIL AND ATMOSPHERIC WEATHER?

In the world, two-thirds of the nitrogen we use on our crops becomes a pollutant. In Mexico, we apply 104% more nitrogen that contributes nothing to yield.

In Mexico, regenerative agriculture is beginning to gain traction as an alternative to conventional agriculture.

It is a much more profitable option than traditional input-based agriculture. That extra margin can be used to attract and retain the best labor.

It generates healthier food and contributes to capturing CO2 from the atmosphere.

If it’s all so good… then where’s the catch?

There is a financial and emotional cost of transition.

It depends in a great matter on how damaged the plants and soils are by traditional agriculture.

That damage is directly related to the practices and work models that have to be unlearned and changed in the transition.

These changes in practices and work models will probably take more time than money to begin to see results in yields and profitability.

During this transition time, the emotional toll on the farmer can be high.

Changing and letting go of lifelong practices and working models can shake the most convinced decision-maker.

-Even with the data in hand.

Even more so if you have the same technical advisor of all your life, and the agro-input industry that will be talking your ear off to return to traditional practices.

I am convinced that no farmer would consider returning to the traditional model of agriculture, after seeing the agronomic, economic, environmental, and social results.

In conclusion, regenerative agriculture is not only financially viable but also offers an opportunity to transform the agricultural sector in Mexico, promoting a more sustainable and resilient system.

9. What are the main trends that you consider will impact the industry in the coming years?

My realistic list differs from my ideal list, but well… here goes:

The trends follow a Market driver and a Government Regulation driver.

In Europe the over-regulation of the European Community is making food more and more expensive for the final consumer.

In America, generalized inflation is limiting access to better quality food, but with a higher price.

It is a fact that more and more consumers are environmentally conscious and concerned about the quality of their food. But I don’t know if they can necessarily back up their convictions with their budgets.

Another trend is the need to adapt agricultural practices to Climate Change, developing more resilient crops and high water use efficiency.

Sustainability and Regenerative Agriculture, I believe, will drive more detailed study of soil and plant microbiology.

Digitalization and adoption of technology in the field for management and decision-making.

Carbon footprint reduction. I see many initiatives that look more like Greenwash to me, and honestly, I see it still far away in Mexico.

I think we are leaving the era of the standardized technological package, to enter the era of personalized agronomic management.

10. Do you have anything else you would like to add?

In agriculture, we will begin to see measurement technology like never before.

In addition to evaluating the quality of the measurement and the price, the farmer must weigh whether they are measurements for reactive or preventive decision-making.

The farmer must be careful not to continue making decisions based on opinion disguised as data-driven decision-making.

This is where the farmer needs cognitive flexibility.

In Agriculture we will start to see more “Oracles”; AI algorithms that predict agronomic behavior.

The problem is that there are still biases and vested interests that encourage industry abuse. Just as with the pharmaceutical industry.

Farmers need to ensure they understand the alignment of interests—how, where, for whom, and by whom those algorithms were programmed and trained.

But above all, they need to know the economic incentives behind them.

New technologies will virtually eliminate the information asymmetry between the farmer and the input supplier.

This is the perfect opportunity for farmers to take back control of agriculture.