Objectives of the service
Fauna Smart Technologies is developing a precision horticulture mobile application with the goal of helping farmers have better control over the health and management of their apple orchard. Until recently, farmers did not have enough incentives to change their production. But when the new EU regulations for food production came into force (Farm2Fork, Green Deal) and coincided with strict regulations on biodiversity (Climate Action, Biodiversity Strategy for 2030) and further with Paris Agreement, the innovation in primary food production came into the spotlight. These regulations especially affected growers of high value crops like horticulture, one of the most inefficient productions with an excessive number of operations in the field. This is the reason why it has the biggest opportunity to decrease the CO2 footprint. Fauna Smart Technologies will provide farmers with insights into risks of insect-pests and disease attack, strategies to prevent them via reduced (bio)pesticide spraying (30%) and mechanisation in the field (50%). This new norm for growing apples directly affects CO2 emission reduction so that growers can record it and further monetize their greener production strategies.
Users and their needs
We are engaging users as customers. The customer segment is focused on apple growers in the horticultural segment. FStech has already initiated the expansion to the horticultural-advisors sector as well. The primary customer is the horticultural grower who is transitioning to greener production practices, who is also innovative oriented and tech-savvy, motivated/subsidised to follow sustainable and regenerative farming practices, to decrease carbon footprint, increase crop quality and extend the shelf life of the horticultural products.
The main opportunities for product development in this sector are:
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actionable information behind the data (information connected to solutions),
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engagement with prominent horticulture influencers from their local association,
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to gather insights data from their own field (stored in a digital form).
We have established relationships with the Danish fruit growers in different regions of the country for the collaboration on data collection and user testing.
Service/ system concept
InYouSeq has a purpose to reach a farmer-level tackling the field of Horticulture with the biggest opportunity to decrease the CO2 footprint due to its intensive production processes and excessive number of operations in the field that we can reduce. We started with historical data input (from farmers’ fields) in order to map out the operational processes and find CO2 benchmarks for each of them. Next is using satellites with machine learning to detect areas in the field with risks of pest/disease attack. The outcome of this analysis is a Pest Risk Map that will be connected to our knowledge database and be able to provide suggestions/solutions for farmers on what to do next (which product to use, which operation to execute and where CO2 can be decreased). Each step that farmers take will be noted in app and directly in Digital Field Book, and as an outcome will have beside certification of his production also CO2 calculation. In further development, we will connect through affiliate model CO2 token buyers and farmers will be able to have additional revenue streams that they did not count on.
Space Added Value
Currently, Fauna Smart Technologies employs Multispectral Satellite imagery using Landsat-8, Sentinel-2 and Planet satellites. The addition of Landsat-8’s thermal bands are used to get land surface temperature. Using satellite imagery, we can reduce CO2 output via reduced mechanisation use (by optimising production processes). Connecting field processes and satellite data we can find patterns to measure CO2 output and/or suggest what operations can be avoided and boost greener quality production. Competition ecosystem measuring only one parameter related to production (micro/macro nutrient deficiency, moisture level, biomass...), or just CO2 calculation. Single information itself doesn’t have a significant value for a farmer but only when coupled with a few parameters and provides a solution proposal and opportunity for administrative backup that is solving a couple of pains, saves money and increases yield.
Current Status
The InYouSeq is a fully integrated system, with a cloud hosted backend processing satellite imagery, a frontend displaying unique user anomaly maps in a mobile interface, and both connected to a cloud hosted database and authentication system.
Prime Contractor(s)
