The ag tech industry is booming with unprecedented innovation, as new hardware, firmware, software, and wireless networking combinations are addressing significant challenges for farmers and ranchers. Amid this transformation, two companies that have implemented several precision farming systems announced the general availability of a comprehensive edge and cloud solution.
Veea, a pioneer in integrated smart edge connectivity, computing and security technologies for edge and cloud, has executed a teaming agreement with Opti-Harvest, an agricultural innovation company that develops climate-smart technology and products that help farmers maximize yield, optimize land and labor resources, and increase water use efficiency.
Opti-Harvest’s patented Opti-Filter agricultural technology and Opti-View precision farming platforms enable commercial growers of high-value specialty crops to better utilize sunlight, the planet’s most fundamental, renewable, and free natural resource. Opti-Filter is a patented light filtration technology that maximizes the sun’s most productive rays, filtering out those that inhibit growth.
Opti-View, a unique Agricultural Intelligence technology, collects and processes critical environmental, yield, irrigation, and labor data to enable the promise of precision agriculture.
VeeaHubs are key infrastructure components for Opti-View functionality and deployments. The VHH09-4GL VeeaHub model offers a wide range of connectivity and expansion options for enterprise-grade, demanding applications and, in the case of Opti-Harvest, supports LoRaWAN and 4G LTE. Veea’s vMesh™ WiFi optimizes performance in the field, picking up signals from LoRa sensors generating important data that will be used to create powerful predictive analytics that farmers can use in real-time.
Typical deployments include various commercial off-the-shelf and proprietary sensors that send data to VeeaHubs wirelessly, which in turn sends data to the cloud over public or private 4G or 5G connections, feeding a variety of cloud systems. The data collected by VeeaHubs makes its way to the Opti-View portal with an intuitive admin experience and ultimately to AI and ML systems for advanced analytics, presentation, and reporting.
“Veea is committed to working with Opti-Harvest to develop this advanced, connected solution to monitor critical data streams for crops in the field and create new value from this digital transformation,” said Mark Tubinis, Chief Commercial Officer, Veea. “Food security is one of the most significant social challenges today, as is the dramatic climate change, which is impacting the ability for farmers to improve yields, assure quality, and operate profitably. With precision agriculture techniques, we can intelligently address everything from water consumption to soil and nutrients management, beyond indoor growing facilities where AgTech has seen its earliest successes.”
Tubinis also explained that by augmenting Opti-Harvest’s sunlight optimization products with sensors and data collected from those sensors shipped into local and cloud applications, this partnership can “change the game and make sustainable contributions to the farming industry, to the communities those farms are part of, and quality of life for millions.”
“We are thrilled to be partnered with Veea in this important initiative,” said Jodd Readick, CTO of Precision Ag, Opti-Harvest. “Working closely with Veea’s highly skilled team, we are excited to create innovative solutions with high ROI to demanding problems. Partnering with Veea enables us to provide a complete, fully managed, and cost-effective solution encompassing powerful edge computing and flexible data connectivity services to major growers around the world.”
The growing risks triggered by climate change are threatening the planet’s food supply and the health of the agriculture industry around the world. For example, according to the United Nations, approximately 155 million people faced a food crisis in 2021, up from 135 million the year before. Key among the causes are climate shocks, including extreme weather conditions triggered by accelerating warming, floods, drought, and related population displacement.
According to Precedence Research, the global internet of things (IoT) in the agriculture market size is expected to hit around $28.56 billion by 2030 and is poised to grow at a CAGR of 9.62% from 2022 to 2030. The monitoring segment, according to the report, is projected to be worth around $7.31 billion by 2030, while the smart sensor systems segment is expected to reach around $2.85 billion by 2030.
Edited by
Erik Linask
