Syngenta Seeds and the Analytics Society of INFORMS selected a team affiliated with CSIRO Data61 in Australia as the winner of the 2021 Syngenta Crop Challenge in Analytics.
This year’s competition focused on optimizing corn hybrid breeding processes. Using real-world crop data, participants were charged with developing analytical approaches and models aimed at optimizing seed product development systems to help increase performance and crop yield potential across diverse environments.
The winning team, which included Reena Kapoor and Rodolfo García-Flores, was awarded a $5,000 prize for their submission, “Optimal Schedules for Corn Planting and Storage.”
They represented CSIRO Data61, a digital research network associated with Australia’s national science agency that is known for creating analytical solutions to real-world problems. Kapoor and García-Flores noted that the competition aligned well with their research interests in addition to serving as a great team building exercise.
“Efficiently managing crop planting decisions and storage capacity at warehouses under future climate uncertainty is crucial to meeting the growing food demand,” says Kapoor. “By participating in the Syngenta Crop Challenge, we learned how we can bring value to the crop industry using efficient optimization and data analytics tools.”
Four finalist teams presented their submissions during the Virtual 2021 INFORMS Business Analytics Conference, where the winners were announced in a virtual awards ceremony on April 14.
“The finalists in this year’s competition demonstrated how cross-discipline collaboration can uncover new ways to use agriculture data to inform seed breeding research and development,” says Durai Sundaramoorthi, senior lecturer of data analytics at Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis, and Crop Challenge prize committee chair. “After careful deliberation, we selected the team affiliated with CSIRO Data61 as the winner due to their creative and methodical approach to improve complex seed product development processes with an innovative model.”
The runner-up submission, “A Multiobjective, Soft Constraint Solution to the 2021 Syngenta Crop Challenge,” authored by Mingshi Cui, Kunting Qi and Byran Smucker from Miami University (USA), received a $2,500 prize.
The third-place entry, “Optimizing Crop Planting Schedule Considering Planting Window & Harvesting Capacity,” authored by Saiara Samira Sajid and Guiping Hu from Iowa State University (USA), received a $1,000 prize.
“Analytics and data science play a more vital role than ever in agriculture as growers face increasing pressures from climate change, soil erosion, biodiversity loss and changes in consumer tastes,” says Gregory Doonan, head of advanced analytics, Syngenta Seeds. “The finalists in this year’s competition delivered innovative, analytical solutions and demonstrated why collaboration across industries is crucial to improving crop productivity and meeting the needs of a growing population.”
