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McCain Foods has launched a new grower pilot programme with agricultural intelligence company Ceres AI to improve field-level visibility and decision-making across its North American potato supply chain.

The initiative is designed to provide McCain agronomy teams and contracted growers with a shared, data-driven view of crop performance throughout the growing season, enabling earlier identification of field variability and more targeted in-season interventions.

The programme addresses a common challenge in large-scale agricultural operations, where field insights can be fragmented or delayed, limiting the ability to coordinate scouting activities, prioritise field visits and respond quickly to emerging crop issues.

Through the pilot, participating growers and McCain teams will receive continuous field-level insights that identify areas requiring closer attention. The information is intended to help agronomists and growers focus scouting efforts, prioritise actions and make more informed management decisions during the growing season.

A key feature of the programme is that both McCain and its growers access the same field-level intelligence, creating a common understanding of crop performance and enabling more coordinated decision-making across participating acreage.

Jeremy Buchman, director of agronomy at McCain Foods, said: "Through this grower pilot programme, we are working to provide our growers with better visibility into their fields and more targeted support during the season. By aligning our teams and growers around a shared view of performance, we can act earlier, focus on the right areas and improve outcomes together."

Ceres AI is providing the underlying analytics platform, translating field-level data into actionable insights that integrate with McCain's existing agronomy workflows and systems. The aim is to ensure data can be incorporated into day-to-day operational decisions rather than existing as standalone information.

Anubhav Sharma, head of marketing at Ceres AI, added: "At its core, this work is about helping growers and McCain teams make better decisions, faster at scale. By turning complex field data into clear insights, we are supporting focused scouting, better coordination and more effective decision-making across participating acres, in a way that aligns with McCain's broader agricultural goals over time."

The pilot reflects the increasing adoption of digital agriculture technologies across the food and beverage supply chain, with processors and growers using AI and remote sensing tools to improve crop management, strengthen supply resilience and optimise yields.

McCain said it expects the programme to evolve over time, with a focus on enhancing grower engagement, improving operational efficiency and increasing confidence in crop performance across its potato supply network.

Ceres AI's platform is built on more than 17 billion plant-level measurements collected across 32 million acres, providing agricultural businesses with field intelligence designed to reduce production risks, improve efficiency and protect crop yields.

McCain Foods, the world's largest manufacturer of frozen potato products, supplies customers in more than 160 countries and continues to invest in technologies that support resilient and sustainable agricultural practices.