What the Bayer/Prospera Partnership Means for Greenhouse Vegetables
July 23, 2020 
Earlier this month, Greenhouse Grower reported on a technology collaboration between Bayer and Prospera that is designed to help greenhouse vegetable growers sustainably meet increasing global needs through innovative digital solutions. This week, we caught up with Chris Moore, Head of Digital Transformation at Bayer, to learn more about the partnership and what it might mean for the future of greenhouse vegetable production.
Greenhouse Grower (GG): Let’s start with your title, Head of Digital Transformation. What does that entail?
Moore: My goal is to make sure our business and our industry takes advantage of the latest technology and how it can help with customer engagement and improving efficiency.
GG: Why is this partnership specifically focused on greenhouse vegetables?
Moore: The Seminis and DeRuiter seed brands came to us when Bayer acquired Monsanto, and we quickly developed a strategy to analyze how we can add value to our customers and the industry. We want to be both a market leader and a thought leader. We can do more than just sell seeds; we see value in partnering with others in the supply chain.
GG: What are the main advantages/benefits this system provides?
Moore: Our goal is to improve grower profitability, and this platform gives growers the ability to detect at a detailed level how their operation is performing. It measures crop progress and water needs, and it can detect patterns and make predictions. Growers have a lot of costs outside of their control, and a system that helps them manage input costs provides great value. We have a lot of agronomic knowledge, and Prospera has the technology background. They’ve been in different industries, and now want to apply their knowledge to this market.
GG: How do you envision the education process in terms of helping growers (both large and small) use this system?
Moore: We are taking a build-as-we-go approach, which we’ve used in other new programs as well. We are starting small with a pilot project in Mexico, to get the system installed. We have a mix of growers trialing it, and from those trials, we can learn how growers can best use the system.
GG: Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a somewhat intimidating concept. How can growers truly understand the benefits it can offer?
Moore: Seeing is believing. We did demonstrations for our leadership team on what the Prospera platform can do. Any time you have to make a judgment call on a decision in the greenhouse, AI helps automate that based on data and training an algorithm to make the best decision.
GG: When do you think you’ll be able to expand from Mexico into the U.S.?
Moore: It will likely take several years to really build this system into the market. Our focus now is plastic houses in Mexico and elsewhere. From there, we will look into expanding into adjacent markets.
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