Accurate and holistic digitalization is now in the basis of efficiency!

SAP Turkey and one of its partners Detaysoft held a digital event with the theme: “Digitalization from the field to the table”. The event discussed the role of technology in the value chain from field to table and the future of the agricultural sector in the new period after Covid-19. The first part of the conference was moderated by expert journalist İrfan Donat. In the first part, SAP Turkey General Manager Uğur Candan, Detaysoft General Manager of Alkin Aksoy, Anadolu Etap General Manager Bahadır Açık and Tekfen General Manager Emrah İnce shared their input on the challenges of the new era in the agricultural sector and how it will translate into opportunities, related strategies and plans, how technology will shape agriculture as well as the added value of SAP Technologies from planning to production.

SAP Turkey General Manager Uğur Candan stated that: “Technology stands out as an important factor in the agricultural sector as it is in every field. With the project we have implemented in Argentina, we are able to report every stage of the crop from planting to harvest and offer suggestions to farmers and cooperatives by utilizing the satellite and drone images of 7 million hectares processed by 50,000 farmers. In this way, we were able to increase crop productivity by 20% and reduce pest and disease problems by 15%. It is quite important for Turkey also digitalize by implementing this type of projects and agricultural planning using technologies such as remote monitoring and Internet of Things (IOT). With SAP and Detaysoft cooperation, we can secure the health of farmers with our smart solutions that track whether employees act in accordance with social distance. As SAP, we add value to our customers at every stage of the food value chain and implement participatory innovation. One of SAP’s development centers to handle big data also is in Turkey. SAP Software Development Center in Teknopark İstanbul is one of the five centers in the world where our big data solutions are developed. Solutions developed here by Turkish engineers are added to the global product portfolio of SAP solutions and are exported to all over the world from Turkey. Our goal is not only to earn revenue by increasing the efficiency of institutions in Turkey using our own expertise, but also to offer the products developed under the flag of our country to new markets in different geographies of the world.”

Detaysoft General Manager Alkin Aksoy expressed that: “We develop comprehensive solutions by developing IoT-based SaaS cloud technologies and integrating them with SAP. We are a member of the board of directors of the United VARs community, which operates in more than 100 countries of SAP business partners. Again, with this global vision, we became a partner in NetOP technology, a Dutch based SaaS IoT company. Our goal is to sell our products and solutions globally to the whole world. On the agricultural side, we can follow the supply chain from the moisture of the soil in the field to automatic irrigation, the cold air chain of the product, what temperature it was exposed in the containers and when it reaches the relevant place.”

Anadolu Etap General Manager Bahadır Açık stated that: “We are Turkey’s largest producer of fresh fruit and juice producer with 8 farms on 30 thousand hectares of farm land, 3 juice factories and 1 fruit juice packaging factory. We meet the healthy food needs both in our country and in nearly 60 countries with our quality fresh fruit and fruit juices. Our infrastructure and business model is very suitable for remote working model. During the pandemic process, we had the advantage of all these. As a country, it is obvious that there is an awareness in terms of activating our agricultural potential. In addition to sustainability in the food and agriculture sector, two issues stand out: Traceability and predictability. In order for the operations to be traceable and predictable, you need to use new technologies. As a company, we have been using the new generation ERP system S/4HANA for 18 months.” Tekfen General Manager Emrah İnce said: “It is necessary to ensure the production and traceability of products that we produce conventionally and that we want to offer in their own form, in accordance with sustainable agriculture principles. Thus, these products become value-added products. Agriculture; a process that has a social dimension, creates an ecosystem around it, provides a livelihood for families and takes place in its life cycle. What is expected from us is to integrate these technologies into agricultural processes quickly and ensure the traceability and sustainability of our business models. In the following processes, I think that the introduction of sensor technologies to the field and the transfer of satellites to the 2.2 million registered farmers will be paving the way for transformation.”