PHOTO: AFP
Currently the main ‘robot regions’, North America and Europe, have their own top players. Newcomers are expected to emerge worldwide and the Asian market will expand.
agriculture UAS and provide customised plant protection service to over 1.37 million farmers in Japan. Having passed a series of strict verifi- cations on crop spraying and having obtained approval from the Japan Agriculture Aviation Association, XAG has grown its presence in Japan’s agri-tech market.
Machine learning to
categorise lettuce EUROPE
Researchers at the British Earlham Institute have developed a machine learning platform, AirSurf-Lettuce, which uses deep learning to categorise lettuce crops in fields. It works with computer vision and ultra-scale images taken from the air. The advanced software includes measuring quantity, size and pinpointing loca- tion to help farmers harvest with precision, and getting their crop to market in the most efficient way. Combining this system with GPS allows farmers to precisely track size
distribution of lettuce in fields. The decisions that can then be taken from this information, such as varying applications of inputs and irri- gation, changing harvest strategies and plan- ning the optimum time to sell crop, will all contribute towards increasing on farm yields and improving farm productivity.
Huge potential in African agriculture
AFRICA
More than 90% of the market for digital servic- es that support African smallholders remains untapped and could be worth more than € 2 billion (US$ 2.26bn), according to a study by CTA and Dalberg Advisors. It found nearly 400 different digital agriculture solutions with 33 million registered farmers across sub-Saharan Africa. But the current digitalisation for agricul- ture (D4Ag) market is the tip of the iceberg, with a penetration of just 6% and a turnover in 2018 of an estimated € 127 million (US$ 143m)
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 27 August 2019 7
out of a total addressable market of € 2.3 bil- lion (US$ 2.6bn). The Digitalisation of African Agriculture Report 2018-2019 found an annual growth of more than 40% for both the number of registered farmers and the number of digital solutions, suggesting the D4Ag market in Afri- ca is likely to reach the majority of the region’s farmers by 2030. The report indicates that de- spite challenges, the economics are rapidly im- proving, with a handful of players beginning to develop viable, large-scale businesses.
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