Kubota Corporation has taken a stake in Efos, the Slovenian agtech business behind the ‘Trapview’ pest insect monitoring and forecasting platform. With thousands of traps already deployed in fields, Efos claims it has the largest database of pest data and algorithms in the world, with over 1,300 unique customers across Europe, Australia, and the Americas.
Efos says Trapview provides a solution to organic, bio-controlled or chemical pest control methods for growers seeking targeted crop protection. An automated pest monitoring system for integrated pest management, Trapview consists of three tools: automated smart traps (various types) in the field; cloud-based processing with automatic pest detection; and monitoring applications (web and mobile). Together, these allow growers/advisors to easily and remotely monitor the pest insect situation in their fields.
How does Trapview work?
After the automated trap is placed into the field, a grower/advisor can remotely monitor it through a web or mobile app, or can be alerted when the number of insects reaches a predetermined threshold level. Trapview pest monitoring comes with computer vision-enabled, automated pest detection, count, and analysis. This means that the grower/advisor not only see photos from the traps but also has access to statistical analysis, graphs about current and past number of pests in all of their traps and forecasts of future infestation. For growers moving away from broad spectrum pesticides to highly targeted pesticides with less negative impact on the environment, Trapview empowers them with data to be more efficient with less toxic insecticides.
Kubota expects that its investment in Efos will help accelerate innovation in the monitoring and forecasting of pests, offering an efficient solution for farmers and continuing to drive its extensive experience in preventing the spread of pests and infections.
