Yara North America

Debbie Watts

Debbie Watts is the VP of Innovation and Market Development at Yara North America. A seasoned leader with more than two decades of experience in the agriculture industry, Watts has a deep understanding of the challenges the agricultural industry is facing today. Watts provides direction and oversight for Yara’s innovation teams to develop new products and services for enhancing growers’ efficiency and sustainability of food production

What are some of the major predicaments in agriculture when it comes to technology adoption?

Today, the agricultural industry is highly focused on decarbonization, and there is a strong push toward regenerative agriculture and soil health. Technology is being used more than ever before to improve the quality and efficiency of food production. However, despite the progress being made, I believe that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in the industry.

One of the major challenges that we face now is our constant urge to keep up with accelerated technological innovations, which can create a lot of pressure on farmers. Moreover, most of these innovations do not align with the needs of farmers or the industry and can have a serious impact on the yield and global supply chains. Rather than pursuing random technological solutions available in the market, it is always better to adopt sustainable solutions after analyzing the impact they could have on farmers.

Are there any recent projects that you are working on lately, and what are some of the process elements leveraged to make them successful?

Currently, we are working on a project called the "Better Soil Alliance" in California. The project involves making small changes in the fertilizers that farmers have been using to yield better results.By focusing on solutions that improve the quality of what we produce, we can make a real difference in areas such as water quality and nitrogen impact. To this extent, at Yara North America, we follow a sustainable value growth strategy by promoting climatefriendly crop nutrition and zero-emission energy solutions.

What do you think would be some of the changes happening in the agriculture industry in a couple of years?

I believe digital tools will gain much prominence for enhancing agricultural operations. And the industry will be collaborating with tech companies for bringing innovative solutions to the forefront for helping growers. However, to streamline agricultural production, we need to create a global field identification system consolidating all the data and tools that are currently available to create a cohesive approach to improving agricultural production. If digital tools that are working independently are connected through global field identification systems, they can be used as problem-solving tools for growers.

In your experience, what will be your advice to your fellow peers in the industry?

We need to collaborate with growers to understand their needs and provide well-rounded support for increasing their production. As agriculture professionals, our prime goal has to be establishing a healthy food production system and supporting successful growth.