London, UK – May 26, 2015 – MarkLogic Corporation today announced that the international not-for-profit organization CABI has chosen its Enterprise NoSQL database platform to integrate and deliver content that will help solve agricultural problems in the developing world. CABI helps farmers in more than 70 countries improve crop yields with practical and region-specific advice on combating threats from pests, diseases and more, and publishes information for researchers and academics. After 100 years’ worth of growing and changing data, CABI needed a database that could better meet the needs of tomorrow’s researchers and the company invested in the MarkLogic Enterprise NoSQL database platform.
With demand for CABI information dramatically growing, the organization searched for a new platform that could customize and deliver information to various constituents. Academics requested scientific, data-centric information while farmers in developing countries needed educational and instructional content such as when and how much to water certain crops. Additionally, CABI had to consider the delivery method—cell phones, laptops, paper and more—per each region and audience.
CABI searched for a way to use its extensive content in a highly powerful and flexible fashion. The organization experimented with open source NoSQL but the compromise on ACID transactions, availability and disaster recovery were unacceptable. CABI selected MarkLogic software to reach its business objectives due to its unique combination of flexibility and enterprise-proven technology, eliminating the need for any kind of infrastructure compromise.
“CABI has hugely rich information resources, which we need to process, manage and disseminate to a wide range of users, from research scientists to farmers in the field. MarkLogic software will give us the flexibility, scalability and agility we need to serve all our users and to fulfil our mission of solving problems in agriculture around the world,” said Andrea Powell, CABI’s Chief Information Officer, based at the operation’s UK headquarters.
CABI plans to use MarkLogic Semantics and knowledge graph capabilities to extend and enhance the organization’s Plantwise programme. Plantwise, the CABI-led global food security program, works with 34 countries to establish plant clinics where farmers can find diagnostic support and advice to manage plant health problems. As a home-base for thousands of resources and information on plant health, the program’s data management goals require innovative solutions. By switching to MarkLogic, CABI will be able to help identify where in the world, for example, a particular pest might strike next, and help farmers in those regions to plan ahead to mitigate its impact. Other plans include the provision of a range of region-specific mobile phone apps providing agricultural advisory services for farmers.
“CABI needed to rethink its data approach to ensure that it would continue to offer the best possible help and advice to the vast numbers of smallholder farmers who rely on its services. With our new generation database platform, CABI will be able to innovate and create new products and services that help to solve the world’s agricultural problems, while also delivering value to its donors,” said Adrian Carr, group vice president at MarkLogic.
More information about how CABI is using MarkLogic can be found in this video, recorded at MarkLogic World San Francisco, April 2015.