INSPIRATION
Environmental degradation prompts calls for sustainable solutions across all industries. Sustainability in agriculture refers to the use of eco-friendly methods and inputs which have zero or minimal negative impact on the environment.
An example of this is site-specific crop management (SSCM),commonly known as precision agriculture. It is a method in which farmers use exact amounts of input, such as water,pesticides, and fertilizers, to enhance the quality and productivity of yield. Different tracts of land across the field have different soil properties, receive different sunlight, or have different slopes. The same treatment for the whole farm, thus,is inefficient and leads to a wastage of time and resources.
Consequently, many startups are developing solutions in precision agriculture to improve profitability while addressing sustainability challenges.Australian startup Data Farming delivers digital solutions
in the area of precision agriculture with the help of pay-peruse cloud services. Their cloud-based platform, The Digital Agronomist, includes tools such as satellite images, soil mapping, auto-zone, and much more, empowering farmers with actionable insights into the field. The solution offers free soil
mapping with NDVI, high-resolution satellite imagery, and variable rate technology. The variable-rate application ensures that the rate of application of farm inputs is based on the precise location, thereby establishing precision farming.
Agricolus is an Italian startup that develops numerous tools for precision farming to improve farm management.They deploy satellites and drones for calculating parameters relating to vigor, water stress, and the quantity of chlorophyll.They also develop maps that facilitate variable rate application of fertilizers and other inputs. Further, the startup offers traceability of the farm operations and performance analysis via their hardware, AgriPlug. Overall, the solutions optimize production with the right treatment and inputs, while lowering the management costs incurred.
