Esri's Agriculture Industry Roundup for the Harvest Season

To kick off the harvest season, I’m sharing a roundup of some of my top agriculture resources. From webinars and customer stories to blogs and articles, these easy-to-read insights offer a broad perspective on GIS, agriculture intelligence, geospatial trends, and the Esri agriculture community.

In the on-demand webinar, 250 Years of Agriculture with GIS, we explore how GIS supports practical agricultural workflows such as yield prediction, risk assessment, land-use analysis, and supply chain visibility—and how these approaches can be applied in real-world operations.

That same need for trusted, connected information is shaping how agriculture puts artificial intelligence to work. In Agriculture Intelligence (AI) or Artificial Intelligence (AI): Trusted Applications of Geospatial AI, we look at how ArcGIS, NVIDIA technology, crop-monitoring data, and proven risk-management workflows are helping organizations turn geospatial AI into practical agricultural intelligence.

For ranchers and researchers, reliable data infrastructure provides the foundation for turning day-to-day operations into better decisions. In Texas A&M Is Building the Data Infrastructure That Will Scale American Ranching, I highlight how the AgriTech Innovation Farm Hub at the McGregor Research Center is bringing sensor networks, integrated data, and technology testing together under real ranch conditions to improve producer profitability and strengthen decisions across the beef supply chain. 

Many of these same themes came through in agriculture sessions and conversations at the 2026 Esri User Conference. My key takeaways included the expanding role of GIS, AI, and geospatial data in advancing sustainability, improving operations, and supporting better decisions. I share my perspective in 2026 Esri User Conference: Creating a More (Agriculturally) Intelligent World along with a few highlights from our panel discussion.

I hope these resources offer useful ideas and practical guidance as you consider what’s possible with GIS in agriculture this fall.

Please look for our quarterly newsletter that contains this and more information from the past few months.

Nick Short

Nick Short has dedicated his career to integrating Esri’s GIS technology into the agricultural sector, including a seven-year tenure working with Esri’s USDA account team. With over four decades of IT experience, he has specialized in AI, business intelligence, advanced analytics, GIS, and data management. His professional journey includes senior management roles at Gartner, SAP, SAS, and several Silicon Valley start-ups. Additionally, he spent a decade at NASA Goddard, where he focused on remote sensing, high performance computing, and AI within the Earth sciences and agriculture sector.