Technology plays a key role in food security. Application of big data and data science technologies will enable farm owners to further unlock the potential of the agriculture market.
FSX is a platform provider and technology aggregator. Focussing on urban farming, we seek to promote knowledge-intensive agritechnology adoption among growers, especially those involved in urban farming.
We work with our technology partners, Archisen to support agritechnology services. Archisen designs, develops and operates systems and solutions to grow ultra-fresh, ultra-local produce in urban cities. Archisen has developed Croptron™, a smart urban farming software that uses sensors, IoT technology and data analytics to improve farm management processes and crop yields.
For data-related services, we collaborate with companies like Microsoft and IBM to offer data analytic solutions for enterprises in the food ecosystem including services that:
- Provide means to enable continuous monitoring: Urban farmers need to be able to constantly monitor key parameters that directly impact yield and consequently profits. Technologies such as wireless sensors and variable rate technologies will help farmers to track key agricultural parameters including temperature, weather, nitrate content, soil quality, plant health, weed and unplanted growth, pest detection, etc.
- Enable real-time data collection: Urban farmers need to be able to accurately collect and store data for continuous decision-making. Thus, technologies that ensure the accuracy of the data collected (aerial mapping, field harvesting, weather conditions, chemical detection) are necessary to make agritech solutions more reliable.
- Increasing automation of crop cultivation and livestock production systems: Automated tools and equipment for precision agriculture are made possible with the emergence of opportunities for robotics and drones in the agricultural sector. Further developing technologies that enable human assistance and human-machine interaction will help to tackle the challenge of a declining workforce and ageing farmers.
- Demonstrate increased farmer return-on-investment (ROI): Agritech solutions lead to the development of agricultural products that aid in improving the yield productivity without having an impact on the environment. Optimisation and management of resources enabled by agritech solutions lead to an increase in ROI for farmers.
- Efficient use of data: A key feature of agritech solutions is the generation of large datasets. Thus, the efficient use of data remains critical to the sector and highlights new partnership opportunities with data analytics companies.