Some of the most exciting possibilities for the future of farming begin hundreds of kilometres above the field.
EIMA International, the biennial agricultural and gardening machinery exhibition, comes to Bologna from 10 to 14 November 2026. It’s prompted me to think about what the convergence of satellite connectivity, intelligent machinery and software means for the brands shaping agriculture’s future.
Our recent thinking on connected mobility and robotics explores how these capabilities change what businesses offer. In agriculture, that change promises to help meet growing food demand while managing environmental pressures. Agricultural brands will need to explain their contribution to industrial customers and a wider world with a stake in the food supply. Our Mahindra OJA work offers one example of making technological progress relevant to a specific audience.
Precision pays
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that agriculture will need to produce 50% more food, feed and fibre by 2050 than in 2012. Meeting that rapidly growing demand while protecting finite land and water makes greater precision a particularly hopeful prospect. To understand the brand opportunity, it helps to spend a little time in the field.
Precision farming systems combine information about crops, soil, weather and machinery to guide decisions in specific parts of a field. Sensors reveal changing conditions. Software helps target irrigation and fertiliser. Cameras and onboard processors identify weeds and direct individual spray nozzles towards them. These technologies promise to give farmers greater control over what they use and what their land produces.
Satellite positioning and onboard guidance help machinery follow more accurate paths, reducing gaps and overlap. Automated steering supports operators and helps make better use of each pass. These capabilities also underpin the move towards autonomous fieldwork.
Low Earth orbit satellites extend the connections around those systems, complementing mobile networks where rural coverage is otherwise limited. John Deere’s JDLink Boost already uses Starlink to connect machinery with farm management platforms and support teams, enabling data sharing and remote diagnostics.
Deere reports that its See & Spray technology covered more than five million acres in the 2025 growing season, compared with more than one million in 2024. In 2025, customers reduced their use of non-residual herbicides, used to tackle growing weeds, by nearly 50% on average. That’s a meaningful example of technological progress delivering practical value at scale.
Ideas travel
Our work with Cubic³, the business connecting vehicles and their digital services, deepened our understanding of connectivity and low Earth orbit technology. Research during our work on Mahindra OJA compact tractors then led us to explore what this could also promise for farm equipment at industrial scale.
For OJA’s US launch, the immediate task was specific. Its compact tractor audience included landowners and small business owners. Research with dealers and owners informed ‘Smarter Tougher’, connecting intelligence with Mahindra’s established reputation for toughness through the proposition, identity and launch campaign.
We’re now looking at how those lessons inform industrial brands, where connected capabilities must earn confidence across larger operations and substantial investment decisions.
Scale changes the brief
An industrial purchase can commit a business to years of equipment, software, finance and support. The trigger might be a replacement cycle, labour pressure or an opportunity to improve productivity. Buyers need to assess integration, reliability and the return over time. The brand promise must make sense throughout that decision.
That means understanding the whole value chain. Operators need usable technology, dealers need a proposition they can demonstrate and support, and business leaders need an investment case. A manufacturer adding data and ongoing services must explain how the complete offer improves performance, with proof relevant to each audience.
Brand architecture helps make machinery, platforms and partner technologies understandable as one offer. Clear positioning establishes the value the business intends to lead on. Communications then need to sustain that meaning through evaluation, procurement and the working life of the equipment.
Digital is one part of this. McKinsey’s 2026 survey of 5,500 farmers across ten countries found that 36% used digital channels to evaluate and compare products, up 14 percentage points from 2024. The website needs to work with expert advice, demonstrations and dealer relationships across a considered investment journey.
From field to fork
An example bigger opportunity for agritech brands could be to become recognised for their contribution to food security and resource efficiency. With food supply and living costs under scrutiny, their communications also need to reach government teams shaping industrial and agricultural policy, and a public judging how progress affects everyday life.
We’re interested in helping these businesses claim a larger, purposeful role. At Dusted, we position connected machinery and services as a coherent offer, make the investment case clear across the value chain, and develop distinctive identities and campaigns that bring that value to life.
We believe emerging agricultural innovation deserves a story that reaches from procurement, across policy makers and into relevant areas of public conversation.
Break new ground.
Explore our Mahindra OJA work, or talk to us about positioning your business for connected agriculture.
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