From data silos to smart farming: Building a central hub for plant protection data

Setting the Scene

Agriculture is undergoing a rapid digital shift. Automation, robotics, and data-driven intelligence are reshaping how crops are protected, managed, and delivered at scale. For large Life Sciences organizations, the challenge is no longer data volume, but data readiness: trusted, governed, and machine-consumable product information that can power Smart Farming and regulatory confidence simultaneously.

To move forward, the organization envisioned a central data foundation for Plant Protection that could unify product knowledge across regions, systems, and formats. This foundation needed to support automation, ensure regulatory confidence, and enable smarter digital services for farmers and partners.

Working with Datavid, this vision was realized through the creation of a centralized data hub that transforms product information into a strategic asset. By enabling governance, reuse, and real-time access, the organization positioned itself to deliver faster, more transparent, and more scalable digital farming capabilities.

For leadership, this initiative was not a technology upgrade - it was a strategic investment in data-driven growth, linking governance to innovation, operational agility, and long-term sustainability.

Why this Matters for CDOs 

This project demonstrates how a clear data strategy can unlock measurable business value in highly regulated, data-intensive environments.

• Centralize before you automate
  Smart Farming initiatives fail without a trusted, shared product backbone.
• Governance enables speed, not friction
  Harmonized models and lineage reduced compliance risk while accelerating delivery.
• Machine-ready data is the real differentiator
  Unlocked automation across tools, regions, and partners.
• Build once, reuse everywhere
  A single product hub reduced duplication across digital services and teams.

For CDOs leading enterprise modernization, this case provides a practical blueprint for turning data governance into value creation.

The Challenges

The organization faced a set of critical data challenges that increasingly limited its ability to support Smart Farming, automation, and regulatory compliance at scale. Information essential for Plant Protection and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) was spread across legacy repositories, reducing visibility and reuse.

• Fragmented product data
  Product and regulatory information existed across disconnected systems, preventing a unified, trusted view. 

• Inconsistent access for digital farming
  Automated sprayers, sensors, and digital farming tools lacked reliable, machine-ready product data. 

• Mixed and outdated data formats
  Although data was digital, it originated from diverse legacy structures and external providers, creating inconsistencies and manual reconciliation efforts, particularly for GAP and label information. 

These issues slowed innovation, delayed digital initiatives, and increased operational overhead for global teams. 

Facing data silos that slow innovation?
We build governed, reusable data products that accelerate automation. 

The Solution

The organization partnered with Datavid to transform fragmented Plant Protection data into a governed, reusable data asset by building a centralized data hub. 

The initiative began with the definition of a unified governance and harmonization framework, ensuring consistency, lineage, and trust across all product and regulatory information. Datavid helped design a common product model that enabled data from multiple systems to be aligned, enriched, and managed within a controlled environment. 

This centralized data foundation now serves as a single source of truth for Plant Protection data, supporting automation, improving regulatory confidence, and accelerating digital farming initiatives across regions and business units. 

The platform enables the organization to: 

• Strengthen governance and trust with consistent definitions and traceable data lineage 

• Increase data reuse across digital channels, applications, and automated systems 

• Improve regulatory alignment through reliable, auditable GAP and product data 

• Accelerate innovation by supporting new Smart Farming and digital services 

• Scale confidently with a data foundation designed to evolve with business needs 

A Note on the Technical Foundation 

The platform is built on a modern, cloud-native architecture capable of ingesting, harmonizing, and distributing structured data at enterprise scale. An API-first, event-driven design enables real-time data delivery to downstream systems such as automated sprayers, sensors, and digital farming tools. Technologies including AWS Glue, Python, Node.js, Databricks, AWS Lambda, and AWS SQS support scalable processing, automation, and system integration.

The Outcomes