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Aerobotics creates pest and disease database for local farmers

Ever since we interviewed local agri startup Aerobotics at the AWS Summit earlier in the year, we’ve been following the exploits of the company with keen interest.

Having secured more funding in that time, the latest bit of news out of Aerobotics is its Future of Farming events, which it recently held in 11 different locations across the country.

Along with unpacking their view of the farming industry and the role that technology can play in making it more fruitful (excuse the pun), Aerobotics also unveiled five new innovative solutions for local farmers to tap into.

The most significant of the five is the pest and disease database that Aerobotics has created for its Aeroview platform, which uses images and video from drones to analyse the health of vineyards and crops on a leaf-by-leaf basis.

“We have been working extremely hard over the past few years with growers and industry partners to create technology that will completely change how farmers manage their crops, identify stressed trees and spot individual pests and diseases without stepping foot on the farm,” says Aerobotics co-founder and CEO James Paterson.

“This kind of technology has been the stuff of agri-tech legend, but today we are making the Future of Farming a reality,” he adds.

This database is a first for Aerobotics, leveraging AI and machine learning in order in order to more quickly and accurately identify potential diseases and pests, according to the company.

From there, scout routes are generated for farmers, who can then go and inspect their vineyards or crops in person.

The upshot of such a system is that little time is wasted in assessing large pieces of land that would otherwise take several hours or even days to do. The result is that capacity is freed up for farmers to take care of the smaller aspects of their business, says Aerobotics.

“Until now, the farmer has had to take time to visit each individual tree and rely on past experience and knowledge in the field to identify pests and disease,” notes Aerobotics Data Science Manager Michael Malahe.

“Now, Aeroview has the technology to do all of this for the farmer. The amount of time, energy and money that farmers can save with Aerobotics’ new technology is impressive,” he concludes.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]

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