Agri-EPI Centre is attending this year’s CropTec Show on the 29th and 30th of November 2023, in Warwickshire. Teaming up with Crop Health and Protection (CHAP), and Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock, we will be represented as the Agri-Tech Centres.
For the last decade, the CropTec Show has bought together some of the United Kingdom’s leading progressive growers and agronomists, industry experts and advisors, showcasing technical knowledge, producers, services, and advice across two days of seminars, discussions, and networking opportunities.
Agri-EPI is trilled to be at the event, where this year we will be bringing along Earth Rover, AgriSound, and Vertinetik, three agri-tech start-up businesses that Agri-EPI has supported to grow and develop innovative technology throughout the agriculture sector. Across the two days at CropTec, we will be sharing our expert and technical knowledge, as well as showcasing services and the support we offer.
Earth Rover
Earth Rover aims to change the way organic producer is made with a mission to make fresh, chemical free produce the new normal by using artificial intelligence and robotics.
Founded in 2017, Earth Rover was created as a result of a challenge faced by PollyBell Farm in Yorkshire – one of the UK’s largest organic broccoli producers. PollyBell wanted to understand how technology could help with the counting of crops and new approaches to weeding.
As a result, Earth Rover revolutionized the agriculture industry by developing a Concentrated Light Autonomous Weeding and Scouting (CLAWS) rover, with funding from Innovate UK and project partners PollyBell Farms and the Agri-EPI Centre. The CLAWS rover uses AI and robotics to remove weeds, including herbicide-resistant weeds, without disrupting the soil or causing safety hazards. Its cloud-based scouting system gathers precise crop data to allow farmers to get recommendations and predictions to guide decision-making based on mapping plots and calculating crop health and growth rates.
The rover is ultra-lightweight as is the first rover of its nature to be fully solar-powered, enabling farmers to achieve sustainable weeding and meet their net-zero targets.
AgriSound
AgriSound is a technology business dedicated to protecting the worlds’ biodiversity by using sensors that can monitor pollinators and produce data that can help protect the worlds’ food supply. They specialise in remote insect technology and environmental sensors that can monitor pollinator populations.
AgriSound is involved in a collaborative biodiversity monitoring project with Agri-EPI, Pollenize CIC, Chirrup AI and organic farmer Sophie Alexander, funded through Innovate UK and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Farming Innovation Programme. This project uses technology to monitor biodiversity 24/7 on a dairy and arable farm in Dorset, with an aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of digital technology as a means of remotely monitoring challenges through accurate quantification of nature in any one location.
Within this project, AgriSound have installed in-field sensor devices for automated insect monitoring, known as PollyTM to generate a comprehensive understanding of the pollinators on the farm. It has been developed to be optimised for attracting pollinators from a broad spectrum of local insects and detects 24/7 through specialised bioacoustics technology.
Find out more about the biodiversity 24/7 project
Vertinetik
Vertinetik are a Shropshire based drone solutions company, based in our Midlands Agri-Tech Innovation Hub, aiming to simplify agricultural technology adoption and guide small and medium-sized growers in their digital transformation journey.
Recently, Vertinetik collaborated with Agri-EPI on a project to tackle ADD (Ash Dieback Disease) and other tree diseases. This is done by implementing emerging technologies to develop predictive models that can be used to facilitate the mapping and monitoring of ash trees, record the state of trees, and help farmers and woodland owners manager ADD and plan routes to recovery and restoration of trees for the management of England’s Ash Trees.
The project aims to provide an affordable solution to benefit smaller woodland owners in identifying disease infestations and taking proactive intervention measures to protect the economic and ecological value of Ash Trees.
Learn more about Vertinetik’s project with ADD
Find out more about CropTec and get your free ticket here!
