SupPlant, the leading precision agriculture hardware-software solution, was granted $2M (1.6M Euros) from the National Centre for Research and Development of the Government of Poland to develop new smart irrigation technology suited for small farmers with land that is smaller than 10 hectares.
The technology will be developed in SupPlant’s new offices in Poland (opening in Jan 2021) over the next 30 months alongside Professor Waldemar Treder who specializes in Plant Management from the Research Institute of Horticulture in Skierniewice.
80% of the world’s farmers are smallholder farmers which are dealing daily with challenges such as the unpredictable climate that is changing rapidly, differentiating each plant’s water needs, the price of water and the need to feed the people around them. SupPlant wishes to make their technologies available to these vulnerable populations.
SupPlant’s technology is being used by farmers in 14 countries around the world including Australia, Mexico and South Africa. This grant is supporting the development of more advanced technology, a mobile application which will avoid the need for physical sensors, and a smart water valve which will communicate with SupPlant’s application.
By changing the basic concept of irrigation methods and sensing the plant’s stress, this unique technology will assist small farmers to manage their water budgets efficiently, save water, reduce costs, improve productivity and yield.
SupPlant uses agronomic algorithms, sensors, artificial intelligence and cloud-based technology in order to achieve more resilient crops while saving on resources and increased yields. SupPlant’s algorithms use information from plant and soil sensors (soil moisture, stem\trunk diameter, leaf temperature and fruit size), sent to the cloud every 30 min. The algorithms identify the stress status of the plant, and calculate the optimal irrigation plan. The plan is sent to the farmer as recommendation or sent to the irrigation controller for a fully autonomous irrigation system.
SupPlant, an Israeli technology, is active in many countries, including South Africa, Australia and Mexico, and has expertise in 31 crops, with a unique focus on Avocado, citrus and wine grapes.
About SupPlant
SupPlant mission is to equip growers around the world and Agri-businesses managing their WATER CHALLENGES with the most relevant and powering actionable agronomic insights.
By changing the basic concept of irrigation methods, based on the plant’s current necessities, our unique technology has proven to SAVE WATER ON GLOBAL SCALES AND IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY AND YIELDS.
Plants’ data are combined with SupPlant’s proprietary big-data collected over 1000 growing seasons and fed into our unique agronomist-supported algorithm. This yields high resolution, real-time, and forecasted insights and irrigation recommendations. This ensures healthy and robust harvests with optimal water usage.
