Bay Area aerial imaging startup teams up to detect disease in crops before outbreaks

Source: Mercury News
12/15/17, 05:39 AM | Indoor & Vertical Farming, Lighting | AgTech, drones, Software and Smarts, Technology Discussions

Seung Lee for The Mercury News:  An Oakland-based startup is sending its aerial imaging technology to the Midwestern plains to help farmers detect pests and diseases in their corn and soybean fields before an outbreak.

Ceres Imaging announced Tuesday that the startup, which raised $5 million for its Series A fund back in May, will partner with an agricultural cooperative serving in five counties in central Illinois. The partnership is a test, which Ceres Imaging’s founder Ashwin Madgavkar hopes will help spread its technology across the United States.

Madgavkar said Ceres Imaging was inspired by his time working at large sugar cane farms in Brazil and Colombia, seeing how farmers would spray fertilizer and pesticides without taking into account effects on the soil or plants.

“This led to a lot of yield being left on the table and creating environmental damage,” said Madgavkar. “I saw a lot of inefficiency on how these decisions were made.”

Madgavkar then went to Stanford and was introduced to aerial imagery. He said using aerial imagery to collect data on the crops to make better decisions was a no-brainer.  Full Article:

More Lighting Stories | Articles | News

Comments (0)

This post does not have any comments. Be the first to leave a comment below.

Post A Comment

You must be logged in before you can post a comment. Login now.

Featured Product

Particularly small and cost-effective: Market launch of the uEye XLS cameras

Particularly small and cost-effective: Market launch of the uEye XLS cameras

Image processing opens up a wide range of possibilities for the automation of modern agriculture - but what to do when only a small budget is available? That is where the uEye XLS comes in. With the launch of these super-small industrial cameras, even price-sensitive applications and volume projects become feasible. Measuring just 29 x 29 x 7 mm, the compact cameras offer excellent imaging characteristics without excessive heat generation, making them a perfect fit for embedded vision applications in agricultural machinery and equipment. The industrial cameras comply with the vision standard and are available with Micro-B connectors and with or without C/CS or S-mount lens holders, further increasing their adaptability to different agricultural environments. Thanks to these features, the cameras offered by IDS Imaging Development Systems lower the barriers to entry and make it easier to explore the potential of vision technology to optimize agricultural processes.
More Products
Feature Your Product