Five Companies Transforming Agriculture With Machine Learning

The agriculture sector is going to face hideous problems feeding around 9.6 Billion people by 2050. With a limited area of land and water, agriculture will need to expand its capabilities. This is the time when technology kicks in making a presence, using resources in better ways. Here are the list of 5 companies that evolved themselves around machine learning, adapting the technology for higher market dominance.

1. Nature Sweet

NatureSweet LTD is based in San Antonio- grower, packager and seller of goods. The company grows a variety of tomatoes.

With the help of Machine Learning and algorithms set in place and the cameras installed, the company tracks all sorts of emerging problems in plants.

“NatureSweet claims that Machine Learning analysis has helped to increase the harvest between 2 and 4 %, and the founders hope that number will eventually climb up to 20 percent”. – Source

2. John Deere

John Deere a successful, 180-year-old company known for its iconic green tractors, acquired Blue River Technology. John Deere believes that food and agriculture chain is one of the most promising industries where the Machine learning can bring about transformational changes.

John Deere believes that machine learning will help to reduce the need for herbicides by almost 95 percent since the belief is that the computer vision will help agriculture revolution to take a decision about every single crop in the field.

Every step in agriculture will be made better using machine learning, from harvesting crop, predictions of weather, soil tilling, specific area selection, fertilizer usage, rainfall pattern etc.

Ganesh Jayaram, Vice president for information technology of Deere states “We don’t have a lot of agricultural lands left to bring under production, but will still have to do more with less’’. While Alex Purdy, Director of John Deere Labs states “Seventy percent of agriculture is going to come from technology, and we need to do it in the most sustainable way possible”. – Source

3. Bowery

Bowery is a modern farming company growing the purest produce imaginable. As large farms have several outdoor threats of weather and rain, Bowery chose to grow with indoor farming instead.

The startup’s approach uses Machine learning, Led lighting, data analytics, etc. to grow leafy green with zero pesticides and very small amount of water indoors.

The company claims that its technologies help it grow throughout the year, producing 100 times extra leafy greens compared to traditional outdoor farm occupying the same-sized steps, all using ninety-five percent less water. – Source

Bowery Co-founder and Ceo quote “With all the technological advances we’ve seen in the last decade, it is now possible to have reliable, consistent production in agriculture”.

4. Plenty

Plenty one of the leading indoor farming companies constructing the global food system, reported a $200 million funding round- led by the SoftBank Vision Fund to make it one of the biggest agri-tech investments in the history of investments.

“We’re pretty excited about that space because some of the hardest problems in agriculture are now lending themselves to an algorithmic or computational or applied machine-learning solution”- Ceo, Matt Barnard – Source

Zack Bogue, a Plenty investor through Data Collective, a San Francisco venture capital fund, put it this way: “We’re pretty excited about that space because some of the hardest problems in agriculture are now lending themselves to an algorithmic or computational or applied machine-learning solution.”

5. Camposeven

Camposeven, a Transformation Agricultural Society, located in San Pedro del Pinatar (Murcia), established in 2007, is composed of 10 members, with agricultural experience over 40 years.

Camposeven partnered with Ec2ec to help them in improving the seed selection process using Machine Learning.
The process of growing, harvesting, processing in the distribution facilities to the customers apply strict controls to ensure the highest quality of each product.

Conclusion

With growing technology advancement agriculture is said to be the face of the revolution. Modern farming is being practiced by farmers around the world for better harvesting of crops- while protecting crops from droughts, furthermore leading to innovation.

Automation, Robotic and complex analytics together are shaping the future of the industries, making them more sophisticated and smarter. The applications of machine learning are shining like a halo facilitating less equipment-failure, better on-time deliveries, advancement in quality, faster training cycles, advanced automation of design and production process.

All this adds up to form endless possibilities for the industries opening the gates to a brand new world of highly efficient, customer-driven factories that seamlessly connects to the surrounding smart ecosystem.