Press releases, articles and stories from our members in the agri-tech cluster (see guidance) . This information is provided by third parties and published in good faith.
Laser weeding is going to be a game-changer in precision agriculture according to Jānis Jaško, CEO of WeedBot Ltd. The company, originally from Latvia has demonstrated its prototype and plans to launch a commercial unit in Spring 2022.
Arable has won the 2021 “IoT Monitoring Solution of the Year” prize in the AgTech Breakthrough Awards, which recognize the best agri-tech companies, products, and services around the globe.
Arable, a member of Agri-TechE, is based in California, its products include a portable weatherstation, Arable Mark 2, which provides localised weather and plant health status in real time via a mobile phone.
Fotenix and Small Robot Company are part of a collaboration devising a new method for the precision application of fungicides and biopesticides.
Making fresh produce affordable is the aim of Crop Cycle an innovative social-impact project that brings together four leading vertical farming companies. LettUs Grow, GrowStack, Digital Farming and Farm Urban are collaborating to deliver four projects in Wales.
The plight of bees has reached the public consciousness with the BBC Big Bee Challenge among the campaigns to support these valuable pollinators. BeeSecure, profiled in the Start-Up Showcase at REAP 2020, is supporting sustainable beekeeping by improving the way that bee services are rented on farm.
A new way of managing apple crops is being pioneered by Outfield. The orchard management company was featured at REAP 2020 and is now part of a Precision Orchard Dosing System (PODS) project, funded by Innovate UK.
Agri-Science specialists Burleigh-Dodds (BDS) have published their 100th title, Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production. Founder Rob Burleigh explains that books are carefully-curated collections of literature reviews of thousands of journal articles and other pieces of research. He says: “All of our titles are about saving our customers time by picking out the key information they need from the overwhelming amount available.”
Pheromones, used by insects for communication, can be used to lure and trap pests. PheroSyn, a spin-out from Rothamsted Research, has been awarded an Innovate UK grant (£200k) to develop the supply chain for a new set of insect pheromones to tackle midges and weevils. It is working with PGRO on these major pests of beans.
Smart irrigation resulted in a 7% increase in the yield of strawberries following commercial trial of a precision irrigation packaged by NIAB EMR with Delta-T Devices.
30MHz wireless sensors assess how happy the crop is from crop level environmental conditions, including actual leaf and stem metrics.
Skippy Scout is currently ten times faster than traditional crop walking methods, says Jack Wrangham, founder of Drone AG
Insect pheromones used in nature for communication are to be engineered synthetically to produce powerful crop protection tools.
Biocleave uses a benign soil bacterium, Clostridium, as a micro-factory to create recombinant proteins such as enzymes, for use in the production of biopesticides.