Author: Anthony James

John Deere has improved the look, feel and navigation features of its popular cloud-based system — Operations Center — to bring new levels of clarity and organisation to farm data management. A new Work Planner feature also enables farmers to streamline their work setup experience and help operators begin working more quickly in the field. Farmers can now use the Operations Center to collect and securely store their field, crop, and machine data from their connected machines for easy analysis and decision making. Since the system is cloud-based, it eliminates the need for transferring data via USB sticks. “We…

A brand new US agtech firm based in New Mexico is on a mission to replace conventional pesticides that are damaging the environment and linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s, birth defects, and other serious health issues. Newly founded Terra Vera says it offers innovative solutions to replace conventional pesticides and increase product safety and consumer confidence within the agriculture industry. Using patented technologies compliant with EPA regulations, Terra Vera says its product is a safe, effective, and sustainable alternative to help farmers rid crops of contaminants, while preserving quality and yield. Unwanted pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi can cause…

Sony Corporation, which already offers a drone-enabled smart agriculture solution to support crop management, has now unveiled the Airpeak aircraft at this week’s CES2021, as part of its own drone development project in the area of AI robotics. The first phase of this project will see Sony launch a new business targeted towards professional photography and video production in the spring of 2021. In order to fully support the creativity of video creators, the payload of the Airpeak drone can be equipped with an Alpha™ mirrorless camera to capture high-quality, full-frame aerial photography and video. Capable of dynamic filming and…

The Israel Innovation Authority has awarded a US$400,000 grant to Israeli precision irrigation company Viridix, to enhance the remote sensing and AI capabilities of its RooTense® solution, which the company claims can increase crop yields by 20% while reducing water and fertilizer usage up to 50%. The funding will also be used to scale production and distribution. Viridix began with a very innovative sensor technology used to measure soil moisture. Through pairing with the latest software to understand the type of plant, age of the plant and soil type, Viridix says it can better respond to crop needs and apply the optimal amount of…

Researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU) continue to pioneer new methods to increase marine aquaculture yields, ensure food safety and decrease the pressure to harvest wild seafood, as they seek to help the southern US state achieve its proposed goal of growing shellfish farming into a US$100-million-a-year industry by 2030. Aquaculture is the world’s fastest-growing animal-protein production sector, while the use of robots in many industries continues to grow equally rapidly. With these two trends firmly in mind, NCSU researchers plan to use small fleets of unmanned vehicles on the water and in the air to improve oyster production…

CropIn, a rapidly growing agtech firm based in India that combines pixel-level information from satellite imagery with IoT and field intelligence, has raised US$20 million in a Series C funding round led by ABC World Asia, an Asia-focused private equity fund dedicated to evidence-based impact investing. With this new round of investment, the company has raised a total funding of US$33.1 million to date. CropIn will use its latest capital infusion to focus on its global expansion, while continuing to innovate its machine learning-based predictive analytics platform, SmartRisk, to further strengthen its AI capabilities. CropIn also recently opened an Amsterdam…

Rather unsurprisingly, technology has come out on top in a competition between the latest agtech disciplines and traditional farming methods, to see which was better at growing strawberries. As a result, the first ever Smart Agriculture Competition, organised by Pinduoduo Inc, China’s largest agtech platform that connects millions of agricultural producers with consumers across the country, has only further boosted the company’s credentials as a means to raise productivity and increase food security. The competition saw four technology teams employ data analysis, intelligent sensors and greenhouse automation to produce an average of 6.86kg of strawberries – 196% more than the…

Aerobotics, a South African agtech start-up that provides early pest and disease detection through drone imagery and artificial intelligence, has raised ZAR250 million (US$16.5 million) during a Series-B investment round led by Naspers Foundry, with participation from the FMO Ventures Program and the Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund. The funding will boost international expansion and technological development, as well as support Aerobotics’ local operations. Aerobotics enables tree and fruit farmers not only to monitor their crops but also to increase their overall yield and reduce their footprint, through a combination of satellite and drone imagery coupled with machine learning algorithms. The…

Advanced materials company, UbiQD Inc, which has developed a highly versatile, ‘quantum-dot’ nanomaterial that is capable of manipulating colour and concentrating light, has raised US$7 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Scout Ventures and Keiretsu Forum. UbiQD partner, Nanosys, also joined the round as a strategic investor. The company has developed a proprietary, patent-protected formulation of quantum dots that is safer, more cost-effective, and more durable than any existing alternative. As a result, the material has a wide variety of applications – including boosting crop productivity in greenhouses. With an initial focus on controlled environment agriculture, UbiQD…

Vancouver-based agtech leader Terramera develops plant-based replacements to synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Now the company has built six custom, state-of-the-art plant growth chambers to showcase its technological capabilities, improve its R&D, and redefine indoor agriculture’s contribution to field-based production. The growth chambers will also reduce trial time from weeks to days. Many crop protection products fail in the field because labs and greenhouses do not accurately replicate real-world conditions, according to the company. Each of Terramera’s new chambers offer precise control over temperature (ranging from 5-40°C), humidity and light to simulate multiple field conditions, from cool nights and morning mists to desert…