Roman Bondarev, Chief Operating Officer of LLC "Russian Land," discussed how to streamline agricultural enterprise operations to achieve factory-level precision and enhance productivity.
The total land bank of LLC "Russian Land" amounts to 130,000 hectares. The company specializes in crop farming, with wheat as its primary crop, accounting for 50% to 53% of the cultivated area, depending on crop rotation. Sunflower ranks second in terms of gross revenue generation, followed by peas. Additionally, the enterprise cultivates flax, sugar beets, and chickpeas.
Over the years, the enterprise has also cultivated winter rapeseed, winter camelina, sorghum, and corn. Currently, among the non-core crops, only commercial corn remains, occupying just 350 hectares. Thanks to the accumulated experience and profitability calculation models, the company has established a sustainable crop rotation system and gained a clear understanding of which crops deliver the highest returns.
The agricultural enterprise is actively engaged in seed production, conducting hybridization on both irrigated and rain-fed lands. The primary crops for hybridization are sunflower and corn. The company is also involved in hybridizing sugar beets and propagating and selling seeds of cereals and legumes, such as wheat, peas, chickpeas, and flax. Additionally, the enterprise cultivates soybeans under irrigation and collaborates on seed breeding partnerships.
There was a strong desire to minimize the human factor, as people are prone to errors and emotions, and the correct decision is not always obvious. The company's management aims to reduce these mistakes while also addressing other inherent risks. Incorporating the human factor into workflows remains a perpetual challenge.
I have been closely connected to agriculture since 2001. Initially, I worked on infrastructure projects related to the storage and processing of agricultural products. Since 2012, I have held the position of Chief Operating Officer at LLC "Russian Land." Our journey into digitalization began in 2012. To exchange experiences, we visited a major agricultural holding with a land bank of over 600,000 hectares to study how they implemented an automated system for tracking completed tasks and precision farming methods.
Upon arrival, we found that their system was not functioning properly. The holding had attempted to implement digital technologies—some aspects worked, while others did not. However, the trip gave us a clear understanding that we needed to fully immerse ourselves in this area, even if it meant facing challenges. We realized that staying idle would mean losing time and falling behind. Thus, since 2013, the company has been actively pursuing digitalization and digital transformation.
Our agricultural enterprise has always been deeply involved in digitalization. We have been familiar with trackers for a long time and continuously keep up with new technologies. When the need arose to implement a farm management system, we already had a good understanding of the market and narrowed it down to four potential solutions.
In late 2017, we began a trial period with AgroSignal, which lasted about a year and concluded at the end of 2018. One of the reasons we chose AgroSignal was their faster response to customer requests and higher flexibility compared to other providers. We saw potential in this partnership, as we had no intention of developing our own farm management system. We understood that such an undertaking would require significant resources and expertise.
Perhaps if our agricultural enterprise managed a million hectares of land, it would make sense to develop an in-house system. However, given our scale, it was not feasible. Therefore, we decided to find a partner who demonstrated flexibility and responsiveness, and AgroSignal proved to be the ideal choice.
In the initial phase, we integrated our current task—monitoring—into the AgroSignal system. All digital data was transferred without issues. While there were challenges, none proved insurmountable. The workflow was successfully established thanks to excellent organization. AgroSignal specialists visited our enterprise, marked the fields, installed the platform, and trained staff to work directly with the digital platform.
Training end-users is typically a challenging stage, but we managed this task effectively. We were already "tracking" our fleet, to borrow the mechanics' jargon. Fuel level sensors and trackers were installed on all our mobile equipment, even on the company CEO's car. Nearly everything is under constant observation here, which perhaps reassures mechanics, as they know the monitoring isn't limited to them alone. As a result, we didn't encounter significant resistance from the staff.
There might have been some pushback in the field. After all, when someone is taken out of their comfort zone, they tend to ask questions unrelated to the task at hand—it’s a natural psychological reaction to discomfort. We worked through this phase of excessive questioning, exercised patience, and listened to those who were overly emotional.
It’s worth noting that one of the key arguments for the mechanics was the increased accuracy in field area tracking. Previously, before the implementation of digital accounting, agronomists would relay information verbally. For instance, “We finished one field, MTZ number one. Ivanov completed one-third, and Petrov did the remaining two-thirds.”
Now, mechanics can see their exact location on navigation monitors and have confidence in the accuracy of their payroll calculations. If any questions arise, all data is available in the system: who arrived, when they started, and how much work was completed, accurate to the hectare. Of course, there may be minor discrepancies related to field edges or roads, but these are more a matter of GPS precision. The issue of distributing earned wages among employees has now been resolved.
If the leadership, from the director to the chief agronomist, shows no interest in a solution, the product is destined to fail. Our primary task was to convey the importance of the digital platform to them. In reality, it would have been easy to implement the system and then forget about it, especially since, at the time—late 2018 and early 2019—the platform's full functionality was not yet available. We had to find reasons and convince everyone of the need to use it.
One of the key features that sparked universal interest was downtime monitoring. We pitched this idea to the AgroSignal developers, and they quickly realized its potential appeal to other agricultural enterprises. The concept was simple: tracking the time vehicles spent idle. By proposing this idea to both the enterprise's leadership and AgroSignal, we maintained interest in the platform within the company. In turn, the developers demonstrated flexibility and loyalty to their customer.
As a result of implementing downtime monitoring, rough calculations showed that the enterprise was able to reduce idle time and increase overall process productivity by 10%. When equipment is idle, so are the operators. We managed to boost the productivity of all equipment by 10%.
Considering capital expenditure, the average cost is about 70,000 rubles per hectare. For machinery specifically, it’s approximately 40,000 rubles per hectare. By improving efficiency, we effectively saved around 4,000 rubles per hectare in capital expenditure. While these are not large sums relative to the overall value of fixed assets, we are currently mindful of every ruble.
It’s important to note that our initial goal in implementing the digital platform was to automate the accounting of completed tasks and eliminate manual record-keeping. We aimed to avoid situations where a recorder would jot something down, pass it to the agronomist, and errors or issues with work completion would arise.
Now, this process operates successfully, allowing us to avoid such problems entirely.
Thus, the 10% increase in productivity impacts both capital expenditures and operational costs.
Automating the accounting of completed tasks is a critical aspect. While "accounting" might seem like a simple word, it forms the backbone of production operations. There is a continuous flow of information: data from the ERP system is sent to AgroSignal, tasks are executed, and then the results are fed back. The production plan dictates the start of each day, and it’s essential that everything proceeds according to plan. It’s no longer a matter of just saying, “Vasya, head over there.” Everything must be pre-organized. Control is maintained at every stage of production.
For us, AgroSignal was integrated into our existing dispatch centers. Now, the entire system, including operational plans and task accounting, operates on a unified platform. This has gradually encouraged employees to change their approach to work, effectively instilling discipline. People now understand that their actions are being monitored: it’s visible when they enter the field, whether they’re working, or if the tractor is idle. This has significantly improved workflow organization, elevating it to a new level.
We’ve essentially transitioned from manual to semi-automated management. The workday begins with a briefing at 7:30 AM, when employees are already in place for the shift change. Everyone knows that the work is carried out efficiently and cohesively, like in a factory.
Previously, equipment downtime could be either planned or unplanned and often went unaccounted for. Now, we are exploring the idea of tracking the downtime of each tractor and implement individually to provide faster analytics for the engineering department. Instead of receiving a generic notification about a breakdown, we aim to identify precisely what isn’t working—whether it’s the tractor or the seeder.
To successfully implement this concept, it’s essential to establish a unified technological environment. We are continually striving to improve our digital system, and this process is ongoing and continuous.
Equipment downtime presents a potential downside—the risk of complicating tasks for mechanics responsible for maintenance and for dispatchers who may need to choose from a multitude of possible causes for malfunctions. In our company, we approach this issue with particular caution and are currently in the testing phase.
