Digital Twins in Agriculture: Siemens Technology Bringing Virtual Precision to Real-World Farms

Sabine Dall'Omo - Chief Executive Officer at Siemens Sub-Saharan Africa

Digital twins — virtual replicas of physical assets that mirror real-time data and enable simulation, prediction, and optimisation — are rapidly moving from manufacturing and aerospace into agriculture. In South Africa, where water scarcity affects 60% of arable land, climate variability threatens yields, and smallholders face a 60% productivity gap with commercial farms, digital twins offer a powerful way to test decisions virtually before committing resources in the field.

Siemens, a global leader in industrial digitalisation, is actively applying digital twin technology to agriculture through its Siemens Xcelerator portfolio and partnerships. While Siemens' most prominent AgriTech applications focus on controlled environment agriculture (CEA) — such as vertical farms, greenhouses, and indoor systems — the underlying principles are highly relevant to South Africa's diverse open-field and orchard farming.

Siemens' Digital Twin Applications in Agriculture

Siemens collaborates with innovative farming companies to create digital twins that simulate plant growth, environmental conditions, and production processes. Key examples include:

• 80 Acres Farms (USA): Siemens is working with this vertical farming leader to build a digital twin that models plant growth and the entire production loop. The twin allows operators to predict outcomes under different conditions (lighting, CO₂, nutrients, temperature) and optimise cycles for shipping schedules. This reduces waste, energy use, and resource consumption while increasing yield predictability — benefits that translate directly to South African greenhouse and tunnel farmers facing water and energy constraints.

• Ráječek Farm (Czech Republic): Siemens Xcelerator integrates with NVIDIA Omniverse to create a digital twin of strawberry plants and fruits. AI trained in the virtual environment detects diseases and pests in the real world, reducing manual labour and cutting costs. The system simulates physical laws (e.g., fruit weight, growth patterns) to train robots for precise harvesting — a model that could accelerate autonomous picking in SA's fruit sectors (citrus, avocados, berries).

• Nasekomo (Bulgaria): Siemens digital twins optimise insect farming for animal feed protein. By simulating larvae growth and production processes, the company scales sustainable feed production with minimal environmental impact — relevant for SA livestock farmers seeking alternative protein sources amid feed price volatility.

These projects demonstrate Siemens' strength: creating comprehensive, physics-based digital twins that combine real-time data (IoT sensors, automation) with advanced simulation to optimise resource use and reduce risk.

Why Digital Twins Matter for South African Agriculture

South Africa's farming conditions — drought-prone regions, variable rainfall, and export quality demands (e.g., EU CBAM carbon rules) — make simulation tools especially valuable.

Potential benefits include:

• Water & Input Optimisation — Test irrigation scenarios virtually to save 20–40% water (critical in Limpopo and Northern Cape).

• Pest & Disease Forecasting — Simulate pest pressure under different weather patterns to target sprays, reducing chemical use by 20–30%.

• Yield & Harvest Planning — Predict fruit load, ripening curves, and optimal harvest windows for citrus and wine grapes.

• Sustainability Reporting — Track carbon footprint and regenerative practices for export compliance and carbon credits.

• Smallholder Scaling — Affordable, cloud-based twins (e.g., satellite + basic sensors) bring precision insights to emerging farmers via SMS or low-cost apps.

While Siemens focuses on CEA and industrial-scale systems, the technology stack (Siemens Xcelerator, MindSphere IoT, Simcenter simulation) can be adapted to open-field farming through partnerships with local AgriTech firms like Farmonaut, Aerobotics, or MyFarmWeb.

Challenges & Realistic Timeline for SA

Full farm-wide digital twins remain capital-intensive (sensors, connectivity, software subscriptions).

Barriers include:

• Rural connectivity (5G at ~30% in agri-zones)

• High upfront costs for sensors/drones

• Data integration across legacy equipment

• Skills gaps (many farmers over 50)

However, progress is accelerating:

• DALRRD grants (R330 million) subsidise sensors and connectivity

• Vodacom/MTN rural 5G expansion reaches more farms

• Edge AI reduces cloud dependency

• Satellite-based twins (Farmonaut, Aerobotics) are already affordable and scalable

Most experts expect medium-to-large commercial farms to adopt comprehensive digital twins by 2028–2030, with smallholder-accessible versions (satellite + SMS alerts) reaching 20–30% of emerging farmers sooner.

The Bottom Line

Siemens' work in digital twins demonstrates the technology's power to simulate, optimise, and de-risk farming — from vertical farms to potentially open-field operations. For South African agriculture, facing water stress, climate uncertainty, and the need to close the smallholder-commercial gap, digital twins represent one of the most promising tools on the horizon.

The question is no longer "if" — but how quickly we can make them accessible to every farmer who needs them, from the Highveld to the Cape.