The Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology was created to link Western Growers members with innovators in the agtech space. Below are news updates from the Center’s startups.
The water method developed by AgMonitor under a grant of the California Energy Commission was recently approved by the State Water Board. It leverages existing electricity “smart meters” and AI algorithms to re-create pump curves and provide a low-cost option to family farms in probationary basins. AgMonitor supports the four methods in the Board guidelines to measure ground water extraction volumes, including satellite-based ETa data to measure water supply (wells and turnouts) and crop water demand (farmed fields).
Agtools has received its first patent: Supply Chain Intelligence – Systems and Methods. This journey started with Ideaship and leading scientists from Japan who researched and analyzed the technology to conclude: worldwide impact, scalability and multiple usages in the Food and Agriculture Industry. Agtools 6 underpin technologies – from data gathering, phenological weather patterns, algorithms, sustainability data for S1, S2 and S3 reporting, industry calculators and neuroscience principles to optimize training methods and systems to enhance user data interpretation and decision-making efficacy will keep improving our industry. Keeping up with AI journey, Agtools got 2nd place at the Ultimate AI Pitch hosted by Amazon nationwide featuring solutions revolutionizing industries through artificial intelligence.
Bio S.I. has expanded its team by welcoming Scott Short as Business Development Lead-Specialty Crops. Mr. Short comes to the team adding 25 years of experience, ranging from farming, finance, agribusiness insurance and digital agronomic management platforms. In addition to company expansion, Bio S.I. is proud to announce new partnerships in California, giving growers exposure to Bio S.I. products from Chico to Bakersfield and covering a broad spectrum of specialty/permanent crops. New partners include Buttonwillow Warehouse Company, Coastal Growers Supply Inc, Farmer’s Fertilizer, Grow West and North Valley Ag Services.
Burro started its journey to solve the relentless labor problem faced by farmers in table grapes and berry harvesting with its namesake Burro autonomous mobile robot. Burro has deployed over 350 robots worldwide with the ability to seamlessly sync to and follow a worker acting as a personal, unmanned utility task vehicle (UTV). Burros also autonomously navigate crop rows, learn and repeat routes and transport goods, just to name a few applications. Burros have traveled over 75,000 miles of autonomous operation and are trusted by many of the top growers in the world. Burro has now set its sights on addressing similar business problems in nurseries with its rugged, easy-to-use Burro Grande. Grande can tow up to 15,000 lbs, both indoors and outdoors, to any destination on your farm. Grandes have pre-launched to several customers in the U.S. and Australia. The official launch of Burro Grande will come at the Cultivate ‘24 conference in Columbus, Ohio on July 14th.
Carbon Robotics received an investment from NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm. This underscores the power of AI in transforming farming worldwide, as well as Carbon Robotics’ leadership and innovation in the industry. Leveraging the power of 24 NVIDIA GPUs, the LaserWeeder processes 4.7 million high-resolution images per hour, offering unparalleled AI-driven plant detection and identification to target and eliminate weeds with lasers.
Carbon Robotics was also recognized on the 2024 CNBC Disruptor 50 list. The CNBC Disruptor 50 is a prestigious honor recognizing the fastest-growing and most innovative private companies that are transforming their industries and the world through technology. Carbon Robotics’ inclusion underscores its pivotal role in revolutionizing farming worldwide and establishing new benchmarks for innovation and sustainability in agriculture.
University of Missouri researchers recently published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences that Coriphol™ (Corigin Solutions, Inc., Merced CA) treated plants exhibited 13.8% increased leaf carbon capture rates and 40% increased crop yield. The team used sophisticated radiocarbon tracing techniques to precisely measure boosted carbon capture rates and high-performance-liquid-chromatography (HPLC) to measure boosted rates of chlorophyl a, chlorophyl b and beta-carotene, which are the biomolecules that comprise the plants photosynthetic machinery. Biosynthesis of these molecules increased 3-fold, 2.6-fold, and 4.7- fold, respectively, and increased their metabolic turnover 2.2-fold, 2.1-fold, and 3.9-fold, respectively. Also, the Chl a/b ratio increased from 3.1 to 3.4 with treatment.
Coriphol™ is an OMRI & CDFA approved organic plant growth enhancer made from almond shells at Corigin’s Merced manufacturing plant and is available in bulk totes and 2.5-gallon jugs.
In May, it was announced that Corigin was one of three domestic fertilizer projects in California chosen by the Biden-Harris Administration to receive an investment to strengthen American farms and businesses.
Cultiva® is pleased to announce its recent partnership with Globalmet™, a precision weather forecasting service, to further the commitment to provide value-added tools to specialty crop growers and retail partners. Working with Globalmet, Cultiva can now provide focused weather forecasts for fruit producers in the Yakima and Wenatchee regions in Washington and the Lodi and Visalia regions in California for the 2024 growing season. Forecasts can be provided in 30-to 45-day windows and include temperature and rain expectations. Combined with Cultiva’s branded products, Parka® and Kallur®, these forecasts will enable retail fieldmen, pest control advisors and growers in these regions to improve their processes for managing fruit cracking, sunburn or fruit coloring issues.
We have started the hiring process to find a CEO for our U.S. branch. This is a big step forward for our growing, international company. We have also hired our initial employees in the U.S. Our team is growing very rapidly in the U.S. and also at our headquarters in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland. We have recently added new crop algorithms to our AI software, making our ARA sprayer adaptable to a wider range of crops, including dicots in wheat, carrots, volunteer potatoes in chicory, dock + thistle, cotton and soy. You can find the article about these algorithms here. We also recently published an article about the beginning of the 2024 season with the ARA ultra-high precision sprayer.
FarmWise’s precision weeder was trialed in processing tomatoes in the Huron area with great success. After a few hours of testing, the machine reached speeds north of 2.5mph on late-weeding stage tomato plants while still maintaining extremely high weeding quality. More features are in the pipeline to continue increasing speed. Tomatoes offer a complex plant structure that can make crop and center stem localization challenging, which is why early computer vision-aided cultivators haven’t been largely adopted in the market. This successful trial continues to prove the robustness and performance of the FarmWise IPS Vision System. Three times the brightness of the sun spotted on each and every plant, NVIDIA’s latest processing chip for revolutionary edge computing, and state-of-the-art machine learning supported by rigorous data collection and image annotation are what make the FarmWise machines truly superior.
Provision Analytics has announced the addition of four new Strategic Advisors to its advisory panel, led by Dr. Jennifer McEntire. These new advisors bring a wealth of industry experience. Courtney Cox, a compliance and food safety expert, has 12 years of experience with companies like Azzule Systems and PrimusLabs. Donna Lynn Browne is renowned for her food safety leadership at Dole and Naturipe Farms. Sharon Beals, formerly SVP of Food Safety at Maple Leaf Foods, has extensive executive experience with major food companies like Tyson and US Foods. Joan Rosen has over 22 years in the produce industry, notably advancing global food safety at Chiquita Brands and Fresh Express. These experts will guide Provision in developing digital food safety solutions valuable to produce growers, packers and processors throughout the membership of Western Growers.
We’re excited to share that SMAPP LAB will be now known as “scoutlabs”. In addition, we have secured our Seed round of funding led by IVP; Thomas Petterfy’s fund, who is the 17th largest landowner in the US; SVG Ventures; Impact Ventures; and Depo Ventures.
TRIC Robotics is thrilled to announce the launch of its new UV and Bug Vacuum platform. Its six-row bug vacuum, powered entirely by electricity, offers double the effectiveness in pest control, ensuring a cleaner, more sustainable approach to agriculture. TRIC Robotics will have four more platforms hitting the fields in July. You can view a night demo here.
We’ve all seen QR codes on products in the grocery store and many of us have scanned them to learn more about a product or brand. But the true potential of QR coding goes beyond what meets the eye in this brief encounter. As a brand owner or marketer, there’s a world of opportunity available within this little label, including benefits like enhanced transparency, consumer engagement and safety measures.
Modern consumers are increasingly concerned and intrigued with the journey of their products. They want to know the origin, the growing conditions, and even the unique aspects of the fresh products they buy, like variety specifics. With today’s technology, brands can now dynamically link content to each individual product, providing detailed information. You can even recommend the best recipes or usage tips for that specific product. This level of personalized connection with your customers is unparalleled and holds the power to create a strong consumer loyalty bond.
For years, iTradeNetwork has had the best-in-breed QR Code labeling solution. Now, there is also the best-in-class consumer experience to complete the picture. Complete with robust analytics, no-code templates for brand marketing and feedback collection capabilities. The easy-to-use features include:
- No-Code Content Creation: Users have access to content creation and management of the templates for what consumers see when they scan an item with an iTradeNetwork QR code. These are highly configurable to ensure the representation of all possible unique product attributes.
- Consumer Engagement Analytics: Engagement reporting and analytics enable the evaluation of consumer feedback, including analysis of factors like location, grower, variety, product, etc.
And it does all this while remaining cost-effective, operationally flexible and requiring minimal-to-no ongoing IT resources. It seamlessly integrates into even the most challenging workflows, including field packing and pre-printing labels. Connect directly with your customers with one simple solution, and get the analytics directly from farm to fork.
For over 25 years, iTradeNetwork has delivered supply chain software solutions to the food service and retail grocery industries in order to increase profitability, improve compliance and strengthen trading partner relationships.
At Towing, we are transforming agriculture with technology and a mission to achieve a super-circular society. Spun off from Nagoya University in Japan and founded in 2020, our company is at the forefront of agri-tech innovation.
Our work focuses on utilizing patented microorganism cultivation technology to produce high-performance biochar. By inoculating microorganisms into the biochar, we have developed a product that offers numerous benefits added to normal biochar. High-performance biochar increases nitrogen uptake, which enhances yields while reducing fertilizer usage, provides robust disease prevention, and accelerates the transition to regenerative agriculture. It has been implemented by over 200 farmers for more than 30 crop types in Japan, receiving feedback indicating yield increases of up to 70% compared to chemical fertilizers.
In March, we opened a state-of-the-art laboratory at AgStart in Woodland, California, marking our expansion into the U.S. We’re conducting successful trials in California for tomatoes and in Ohio for soybeans, demonstrating our technology’s effectiveness across different crops and regions. Next, we’re scaling trials for tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce, potatoes, and cotton. By collaborating with farmers and industry leaders, we aim to showcase biochar’s potential in improving soil quality and resilience to climate challenges. To date, Towing has raised $7.7 million. Explore partnership opportunities with Towing to advance sustainable agriculture without compromising on ROI.
VineView launches PinPoint RTK, an affordable, high-accuracy GPS receiver for precise data collection. Aimed at vineyard operators, VineView’s PinPoint RTK is specifically designed for precise field data collection, offering superior accuracy through Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) technology. With an accuracy of 2-5cm (2 inches), it outperforms traditional GPS receivers, which typically have an accuracy of 2-4m (7-13ft). The result is highly accurate field data collection, allowing vineyard operators to build precise maps for the most informed decision-making and planning. This includes tracking production, disease mapping, yield estimation and asset tracking. Vineyard managers can utilize these maps as tools for various use cases, such as planning how many rootstocks to purchase for the following season, tracking disease over time to determine when to pull a field, sending employees to exact locations for replants and more.