World meat industry news

Large average areas of arable land on farms contribute to the growth of the pace of digitalization of the agro-industrial complex in Russia and Belarus, which are leaders among the CIS countries in terms of the volume of implementation of these technologies. At the same time, as in other countries of the commonwealth, complex digital solutions from its own developers prevail here. The Geomir company spoke about the situation in the field of digitalization of agriculture in the CIS countries.

Russia and Belarus are among the leaders in terms of the pace of digitalization of the agro-industrial complex in the CIS. They are followed by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. At the same time, in terms of digitalization of government bodies of the agro-industrial complex, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have recently been ahead of Russia and Belarus.

The most conservative countries in the field of digitalization of the industry are Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. As for Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Kyrgyzstan, digitalization here is still developing only on the basis of single advanced farms.

“The level of implementation of these technologies is inextricably linked with the average area of agricultural enterprises,” explains Ilya Voronkov, General Director of Geomir, explains the trend. – In Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan they are larger than in other CIS countries, so the use of digital products gives a faster and more significant effect. Also, due to the large volume of the agricultural sector in these countries, digital solutions are being more actively introduced into the activities of government agencies and in the provision of a number of public services. For example, submitting reports or receiving subsidies. Due to this, farms have to master digital technologies, and this also contributes to a more dynamic transformation of agriculture in this direction.”

As for the leaders of digitalization of the agro-industrial complex - Russia and Belarus - the top list of solutions used here is approximately the same. The most common are products for digitalization of accounting based on 1C, which help automate certain enterprise management tasks (budgeting, accounting and tax accounting, analysis of financial and economic activities, etc.). Next come services for monitoring the location and operation of agricultural machinery. The top three leaders in digital solutions are completed by integrated systems for automated management of agribusiness, with the help of which you can not only monitor financial and economic activities, but also manage the production of agricultural products themselves.

In Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, these solutions are also supplemented by some local developments and international products that have currently left the markets of Russia and Belarus.

It is interesting that in the CIS countries, among complex digital solutions, products from local developers are predominantly used. Only a few solutions from international companies are popular here. Moreover, some of them were also developed in the CIS and then purchased by foreign companies.

“This is primarily due to the specifics of business processes in the agro-industrial complex of the CIS countries, which are generally similar and have been preserved since the times of the USSR. Therefore, developers of digital products seeking to sell their programs here need to understand this specificity and adapt solutions,” commented Ilya Voronkov on the peculiarity of the local digital services market.

The company notes that developers of digital products from the CIS countries are already beginning to develop foreign markets. This is mainly a number of countries in Africa and South America, in which the average size of fields and farms, as well as crops, are similar to the practice of the commonwealth countries. Geomir Group itself has been implementing several contracts since 2022, as well as pilot projects in Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa to implement the “Field History” cloud service. And at the BRICS exhibition held at the end of August 2023, the company signed a number of agreements with farmers’ associations in African countries on testing and implementation of its developments.