AI in Agriculture is the bomb
Last week I was invited by Kevin Bloch of Cisco to an Agtech Forum which was really interesting. I then did a bit of research –
Here are some of my takeouts
It’s all about data
It’s all about getting data and using that data to increase productivity – produce more for less .
How to Take subjective (gut feel) to objective (informed) decision making
The future – livestock tags giving algorithms – the way the livestock moves – know where the animals are at any time – highlighting changes in their breathing?
Parasites in sheep costs 436m pa is a case in point – merino sheep are born to die !!Good data has reduced loss by 25pc using sensor technology guving the farmer a heads up!
What happens when things go wrong –
Possums and birds destroying power supplies – equipment damaged – with IoT and data – it will be easy to fix or “swop it out”
“to have that level of control is magic”
Smart farming equipment manufacturers are disrupting the $5T agriculture industry and agricultural giants – generating new revenue streams, and opening up new partnership opportunities. You can read the full report here by cb insights
I was speaking to Richard Frawley (Ex Cisco and one of the smartest dudes I’ve met) – and he was telling me that John Deere are providing harvesters that are already “self driving” via satellites and farmers are driving them from their laptops! If there is an issue – it will be identified by a satellite with an instruction to swop our a relevant part to fix it.
Investment in AI in Agriculture is becoming extremely niche – with VC funding some interesting investments
- seed financing raised by a company using machine learning algorithms for “fishmeal inventory management.”
- Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates and others by a company using computer vision and smart cameras for managing fish farms.
- AI for roti making, and
We now even have
- AI for Sex Education
- Will the AI factory of the future look like this?