CropLogic Ltd

According to an analysis at a UN conference, the food production needs to be increased by about 70 percent by 2050, to feed the growing world population. As farmlands multiply to address this need, conventional agricultural practices that are followed for mass crop cultivation require large quantities of water. However, with the depletion of precious water resources, maximizing crop yields is proving to be a major challenge.

To subjugate over-consumption of water, the requirement for a digital AgTech system that ensured optimum utilization of water for better yields of food crops became greater than ever. In order to obtain an answer, there was a need for increased digital data around farming of crops globally. The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited with their research and analysis put the data together to find a solution. This led to the establishment of CropLogic™ Ltd, an end-to-end agronomy services company with its roots in New Zealand and a strong presence in the U.S. and Australia.

“By combining advanced research and technology with agronomic expertise, we developed a platform that equips growers with simplified data to help them obtain optimum yields,” states James Cooper-Jones, CEO of CropLogic™. He explains about CropLogic™’s passion for providing digital solutions to growers and their innovative product portfolio comprising CropLogic™ realTime, CropLogic™ Aerial Imagery, and CropLogic™ Predict.

CropLogic™ realTime, a hardware and software package provides growers with actionable in-field intelligence designed to help them effectively coordinate farm activities. Aided by sensors utilizing satellite technology, growers have real-time access to data on soil moisture, temperature, and evapotranspiration. The data pertaining to various factors are identify soil moisture, irrigation and rain events, empowering growers to micromanage the water usage and maximize the yield. With accurate and concise insights presented in a digestible format, effective monitoring and tracking of the agricultural area can be done using CropLogic™ realTime’s, user-friendly desktop dashboard and smart device app (Android & iOS).

In vast areas of land under cultivation, where it is often difficult to assess the condition of plants especially those under stress, CropLogic™ Aerial Imagery with its infrared and vegetative index imagery comes to the rescue. Plants emit different infrared signals depending on their state of health that is not visible to the naked eye. These signals are periodically captured from the air to help identify plants in their initial stages of stress, thereby helping growers to intervene earlier and minimize the threats. In some cases, early detection and intervention of problem areas has helped farmers save almost 20 to 30 percent of the plant growth during the critical growing period. The high-resolution digital aerial imagery is chronologically displayed on a digital dashboard within a 24- hour period.

The Aerial Imagery service is complimentary to the CropLogic™ realTime platform, providing in-house agronomists and farmers with a comprehensive picture — a birds’ eye and below-ground view of the state of the crops’ health. Direct surveys of the area can also be undertaken. The final data is collated on the same platform with farmers receiving a mobile text notification around some important elements of this data. This platform also provides feedback to the locally experienced CropLogic™ agronomists who, using this information, assist growers with the necessary scientific information to curtail crop failures and improve cultivation techniques.

CropLogic™ plans to set up offices across California, Nevada, Arizona, and Idaho in addition to its stronghold in the state of Washington, to serve their clients that constitute 30 percent of the potato market in regions of the U.S. Partnerships and relationships have been initiated with some of the research institutes such as the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd in New Zealand, the College of Southern Idaho in USA, State Government supported Smart Farm initiatives in Australia for further development of its digital AgTech solutions.

“We want to make complicated and sophisticated data accessible to the grower in a simple format and at the click of a button. This is where we intend to develop our technology in the years to come,” concludes Cooper-Jones.