Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SysAgria (SysAgria – integrated solution for smart agriculture)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2019-10-01 al 2020-03-31
Intensive use of fertilizers and technologies is affecting the potential of the Earth. Agriculture has become more productive in the recent years as an effect of the growing number of active companies and exploited areas in the field, however the use of technologies that demand the maximum potential of the land could significantly affect the fertile agricultural area, and there is a great danger of desertification. One third of the land surface on Earth has fallen victim to desertification and according to the estimates, another 12 million hectares (approx. 30 million acres) more turn into barren deserts every year.
Plant diseases are another farming obstacle responsible for major economic losses in the agricultural industry worldwide. Monitoring plant health and detecting pathogen early are essential to reduce disease spread and facilitate effective management practices. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that plat diseases cause ~25% of crop failure. For example, enough rice to feed the entire population of Italy today is destroyed by rice blast disease every year.
On the contrary, the farming industry will become arguably more important than ever before in the next few decades. The world will need to produce 70% more food in 2050 than it did in 2016 in order to feed the growing population of the Earth, according to the UN FAO . To meet this demand, farmers and agricultural companies are turning to the Internet of Things for analytics and greater production capabilities.
There are several major drawbacks of existing Agro-IoT solutions today. Most of them require skills the average farmer would not necessarily have such as robotics and computer-based intelligence. Another limitation is price related. The agriculture is a very low margin sector and the willingness to pay of farmers for innovation is low. The existing solutions offer a relatively high price, ranging €3,000–€5,000. On the other hand, they are specialized for a sub-sector, such as orchards, greenhouses, vineyards or field crops. None of the currently existing market solutions is dedicated for all these crops together, making it inefficient for farmers growing variety of crops. In addition, the current automated solutions are rather rigid and unable to adapt to small farmers’ needs.
Precision farming and digital solutions are transforming European agriculture, making it both more competitive and more sustainable. The technology itself and farmers’ interaction with it, however, rely on seamless mobile connectivity – a challenge in many rural areas.
Using connected tools – such as satellites, GPS, drones and sensors – farmers can monitor and respond to their crops and animals’ precise needs. The accuracy, responsiveness and resource savings that precision farming makes possible are a critical step in ensuring farmers’ ability to sustainably provide for a growing population using diminishing resources and limited land.
Among the clients, Syswin Solutions identified the need to predict the risk of disease in cultures. Climate change brings many changes in the natural flows of plant development. Thus, it is necessary to adapt the knowledge about cultures. However, due to rapid changes and knowledge it must adapt at an alert pace. And from this point of view, only advanced technologies allow sufficiently rapid integration and adaptation, so that valuable time is not wasted and, consequently, years of non-productive crops are lost.
The general objective of the solution defined is to connect the experience in the field of plants from research organizations with the latest technology in the field of data acquisition, transmission and processing, from the area of competence of SYSWIN SOLUTIONS and the development of a real-time forecasting and warning system with potential for commercial exploitation as a product. The proposed integrated system is a hardware and software product for the operation and monitoring of crops, as well as the management of devices, data and models associated with diseases and pests. This system records, connects and manages the IoT devices and analyzes the environmental information and phenology of the harmful agents, ensures the efficient transfer of data from each IoT device and presents a high communication reliability, even in weak communication environments.
The SYSAGRIA_CROPALERT is generated by the need identified by Syswin, respectively the disease forecast for certain types of cultures, which ensures an applied response to the demands of the socio-economic environment, both at the level of Romania and at international level.
The secondary objectives of the future project are:
- Adapting and integrating the forecast equations on the new SYSAGRIA_CROPALERT system and demonstrating its functionality as an experimental model.
- Developing and demonstrating in industrial conditions (TRL 6), a prototype of the SYSAGRIA_CROPALERT system.
- Protecting intellectual property rights
Plant diseases are another farming obstacle responsible for major economic losses in the agricultural industry worldwide. Monitoring plant health and detecting pathogen early are essential to reduce disease spread and facilitate effective management practices. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that plat diseases cause ~25% of crop failure. For example, enough rice to feed the entire population of Italy today is destroyed by rice blast disease every year.
On the contrary, the farming industry will become arguably more important than ever before in the next few decades. The world will need to produce 70% more food in 2050 than it did in 2016 in order to feed the growing population of the Earth, according to the UN FAO . To meet this demand, farmers and agricultural companies are turning to the Internet of Things for analytics and greater production capabilities.
There are several major drawbacks of existing Agro-IoT solutions today. Most of them require skills the average farmer would not necessarily have such as robotics and computer-based intelligence. Another limitation is price related. The agriculture is a very low margin sector and the willingness to pay of farmers for innovation is low. The existing solutions offer a relatively high price, ranging €3,000–€5,000. On the other hand, they are specialized for a sub-sector, such as orchards, greenhouses, vineyards or field crops. None of the currently existing market solutions is dedicated for all these crops together, making it inefficient for farmers growing variety of crops. In addition, the current automated solutions are rather rigid and unable to adapt to small farmers’ needs.
Precision farming and digital solutions are transforming European agriculture, making it both more competitive and more sustainable. The technology itself and farmers’ interaction with it, however, rely on seamless mobile connectivity – a challenge in many rural areas.
Using connected tools – such as satellites, GPS, drones and sensors – farmers can monitor and respond to their crops and animals’ precise needs. The accuracy, responsiveness and resource savings that precision farming makes possible are a critical step in ensuring farmers’ ability to sustainably provide for a growing population using diminishing resources and limited land.
Among the clients, Syswin Solutions identified the need to predict the risk of disease in cultures. Climate change brings many changes in the natural flows of plant development. Thus, it is necessary to adapt the knowledge about cultures. However, due to rapid changes and knowledge it must adapt at an alert pace. And from this point of view, only advanced technologies allow sufficiently rapid integration and adaptation, so that valuable time is not wasted and, consequently, years of non-productive crops are lost.
The general objective of the solution defined is to connect the experience in the field of plants from research organizations with the latest technology in the field of data acquisition, transmission and processing, from the area of competence of SYSWIN SOLUTIONS and the development of a real-time forecasting and warning system with potential for commercial exploitation as a product. The proposed integrated system is a hardware and software product for the operation and monitoring of crops, as well as the management of devices, data and models associated with diseases and pests. This system records, connects and manages the IoT devices and analyzes the environmental information and phenology of the harmful agents, ensures the efficient transfer of data from each IoT device and presents a high communication reliability, even in weak communication environments.
The SYSAGRIA_CROPALERT is generated by the need identified by Syswin, respectively the disease forecast for certain types of cultures, which ensures an applied response to the demands of the socio-economic environment, both at the level of Romania and at international level.
The secondary objectives of the future project are:
- Adapting and integrating the forecast equations on the new SYSAGRIA_CROPALERT system and demonstrating its functionality as an experimental model.
- Developing and demonstrating in industrial conditions (TRL 6), a prototype of the SYSAGRIA_CROPALERT system.
- Protecting intellectual property rights
According to SysAgria Phase 1 Objective: assess the technical, commercial and financial feasibility of SysAgria, the following activities were carried out:
1.Market analysis by geographical scope - we studied thoroughly 10 countries (5 Member States and 5 non-Member States)
2.Market segmentation analysis - we defined high-value crops as a first market entry
3.Value chain analysis - we identified intermediaries and potential early adopters in all of the research markets
4.Business plan development - we improved our business strategy and defined USPs, marketing strategy, technical development and financial forecasting
5.Product promotion at business-related events - we promoted SysAgria at 11 business events during project implementation
In addition, we managed to prove the superiority of our product through technical and practical feasibility with local clients, resulting in an improved company strategy to address EIC Accelerator as a next step.
1.Market analysis by geographical scope - we studied thoroughly 10 countries (5 Member States and 5 non-Member States)
2.Market segmentation analysis - we defined high-value crops as a first market entry
3.Value chain analysis - we identified intermediaries and potential early adopters in all of the research markets
4.Business plan development - we improved our business strategy and defined USPs, marketing strategy, technical development and financial forecasting
5.Product promotion at business-related events - we promoted SysAgria at 11 business events during project implementation
In addition, we managed to prove the superiority of our product through technical and practical feasibility with local clients, resulting in an improved company strategy to address EIC Accelerator as a next step.
Existing competing products offer mostly sequential monitoring of a few parameters, are specialized in a single type of crop, require a high level of sophistication /technical knowledge, provide storage and processing of data in cloud and are costly. Compared to these, Syswin proposes (1) a less costly solution (due to an optimized software to provide reverse real-time feedback, highly versatile, which uses machine learning,), (2) compatible with any type of crop (as it was designed since the beginning to be adaptable to all crops), (3) measuring all essential parameters (soil, air, light), and (4) is improved continuously due to higher accuracy of the predictive system. Additionally, the entire solution is designed to answer to those customer demands that are necessary to improve significantly crop health and productivity, making it accessible to a wider range of smaller farmers.
SysAgria competes with variety of automation and control sensors in protected cultivation segment. Complementary, the product has less USPs in protected cultivation compared to the open field market. SysAgria is superior considering number of measured parameters. Our aim for first market positioning should be on markets where added value is highest and regardless of competition on those markets. Successful project completion (Phase 2) is expected to have a positive impact on the environment and food waste through smart farming.
SysAgria competes with variety of automation and control sensors in protected cultivation segment. Complementary, the product has less USPs in protected cultivation compared to the open field market. SysAgria is superior considering number of measured parameters. Our aim for first market positioning should be on markets where added value is highest and regardless of competition on those markets. Successful project completion (Phase 2) is expected to have a positive impact on the environment and food waste through smart farming.