Being a farmer today isn’t an easy job. Between the weather, economic winds, competition from overseas and , changing consumer appetites, it’s getting more challenging than ever.

But for one California agribusiness, improving crop yields, saving on energy costs, expanding the customer base and reducing waste is actually getting easier.

Sun World International, one of the leading proprietary produce variety development programs and grows table grape, pepper, stone fruit and citrus crops on 12,000 acres, is using IBM’s analytics technology to collect, track, analyze and share real time data on everything from crop management to sales, to supply chain processes.

The company is responsible for cultivating seedless grapes and watermelons, for all those fruit aficionados who like not having to eat or remove seeds.

A Cognos system provides insight on all the tangibles involved in farming: crop yields, labor costs, water usage, growing patterns and sales and distribution. It once took days to collect just a portion of some data, now the company has it in minutes and it’s more accurate than ever.

It’s making for smart farming. Sun World has the needed information on how to develop, plant, harvest and sell the right products at the right time to the right markets. The system analyze farming data, such as root stock, timing, location, irrigation and crop type to predict which combinations of elements will bring the best crop yield at the lowest cost.

"We’ve aimed to transform the company culture from a farming business where you 'grow and hope for the best' to one that uses information analytics to provide an accurate measurement of the business," Sun World’s Director of Budgets & Reporting Steve Greenwood said.

"Before, we didn't know until 30 days after the month how our harvest costs were trending. By that time, it was too late to start financial planning because the crops had already been harvested. We’ve turned raw data into business insight, improved our order fill rates, and have gone from being a reactive company to a proactive company."

After analyzing water usage and adjusting irrigation techniques, Sun World has seen its water use per unit decline 8.5%. It can evaluate per unit costs and revenue for each crop type, and analyze how many boxes per hour each crew harvests.

Such insight has resulted in a 10% to 15% labor cost reduction and lower distribution costs.

It has gained 8% more efficiency in farm labor by analyzing man-hours and focusing resources where needed when needed. The system is also helping reduce fuel usage by 20% by measuring equipment usage and matching the proper sized equipment to the proper application

"The company is showing growers around the world how business analytics technologies can help create the right conditions for producing the best fruit while reducing labor costs, energy and water usage," said Paul Chang, IBM's executive for emerging technologies.

"In an industry where analytics is emerging as a core business transformation tool, Sun World is leading the way with a blueprint for other agricultural companies seeking to improve business processes and better serve customers."

And it’s even helping Sun World’s sales teams who used to sell using the phone and quoting commodity prices daily to customers.

By analyzing crop yields along with sales data and retail buying trends, Sun World can now better segment and target clients to build sales programs ahead of the season and ensure the right product mix is sold to the right market.

Overall key segments of Sun World’s customer base has increased in size by over 20 percent year to year while generating more than $3 million in new business last year.