Skyx: Spray your farm at the push of a button. Skyx delivers a complete, ready to go, spraying solution based on their proprietary technology on spraying drones. Skyx presents an autonomous swarm that covers farms fast and precise, or “spot spray” zones in the farm to reduce chemicals. In addition to autonomy and spot spraying, they lower spraying operational and service costs and boost availability and safety. The company offers growers the ability to purchase the entire solution, or to invite them to apply spraying as a service. Skyx’s Californian operation started earlier this year, and its proposition is commercially available. SWIIM continues to make advancements with its reporting and user dashboard features, including enhanced alerts which notify growers as soon as they appear to be under- or over- irrigating. Additionally, the team will be releasing Version 2.0 of the on-farm dashboard in the fall. It will include a new visual experience providing for easier access to common features and the ability to assign field-level water budgets which will be tracked throughout the season. We have announced the launch of SWIIM Certification, designed to highlight farmers who have been committed to responsible water use on their agriculture operation. Growers must be approved by SWIIM to post the certification on their products or in their marketing materials. The SWIIM Certified logo on a field or product will tell consumers that it was grown with the upmost respect for our most precious resource, water. We also have announced the release of “SWIIM Software as a Service” offering, which requires no new equipment.
growers transition to managing compliance digitally, including remote auditing. iFoodDecisionSciences has acquired HarvestMark, a leader in traceability and quality solutions with international scope. The combination of iFoodsDS and HarvestMark creates an integrated supply chain solution enabling its customers to continuously improve their food safety, traceability and quality management systems. The company is rapidly growing its team, including the addition of Scott Mathews as CEO reporting to Executive Chair of the Board, Diane Wetherington. MagGrow , an agtech innovator that specializes in delivering crop protection products where they matter most while protecting the environment, has completed a €6 million Series A round. This was led by impact investor Astanor Ventures and with participation by several strategic international investors, including WakeUp Capital. A number of existing shareholders also contributed to the round. MagGrow is a patented, proprietary technology that significantly reduces waste associated with conventional pesticide spray applications. The company states that 70% of crop protection products when sprayed do not hit or remain on the intended target crop and/or weed. That’s where MagGrow’s science-based technology steps in. It solves the compromise between drift and coverage associated with conventional spraying. Experts in the wine-growing sector took a new step forward with Naïo Technologies . The Ted robot, which is an innovative weeding solution used by many wine growers, is continuing its fine-tuning. Developed three years ago by Naïo Technologies, a pioneering company in agricultural
robotics, Ted is the first autonomous, 100% electric high-clearance tool dedicated to the mechanical weeding of vines. The robot has quickly generated strong interest in the wine-growing sector. More than 20 Teds are now working in various vineyards. One of the newer users is the Bernard Magrez Estate which has developed a four-year partnership with Naïo Technologies to perfect a robot capable of carrying out the majority of the soil maintenance work among the vines. Novihum Technologies made news this month with the power of its patented soil solutions. The company reports it achieved “fantastic results” by researchers at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research & Extension Center in Uvalde, Texas during a multi- year research program. Center Director Dr. Daniel Leskovar and his PhD student Kuan Qin published two peer-reviewed articles this summer about the benefits of using NOVIHUM in field watermelon production, and to the vigor and resilience of pepper, tomato, watermelon, and lettuce seedlings. Significantly higher yields, improved water use efficiency, and reduced transplant shock were among their findings.
40
SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2020
Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
Made with FlippingBook HTML5