“There is no standard platform yet into which we can dive to collect information. Sharing information is the only way to go forward sharing thoughts on issues, as done in the medicine world for instance. By merging various information sources together, we can address the right solution to an issue very quickly. AI can jump in, giving the right suggestions to agronomists or farmers in order to grow better. It’s vital,” said Eric Dargent, Managing partner at Mycelium during a webinar that was organized by the company.
Further discussed during the panel were the key aspects of making vertical farming more successful. In this article, we'll have a look at how big data can help farmers to become more efficient and quick learning about various growing elements. Joining the topic were Gert-Jan van Staalduinen, Owner of Logiqs B.V. and Nicolas Seguy, co-founder of Jungle.
Applying big data
Elaborating on that, Gert-Jan van Staalduinen, Owner of Logiqs B.V. said that big data can help define better-growing recipes. However, data gathering can be challenging for farmers since there are so many different ways to do so. As well as the various measuring instruments that are used. Every farm makes use of different data points, data positions and measurements. “We have to make definitions of how we measure things inside the farm, in order to become better at gathering data and thus learn much quicker.
“We have to know what needs to be measured at first in order to get more specific as we want to understand and expand the number of data that AI is going to monitor, creating a link between those measurements. I’m sure that if we look at the list of criteria of KPIs you want to measure, we might as well have over 150 points of data to collect. However, it’s necessary to do that infrastructure-wise since it’s quite costly. We’re not there yet," Nicolas Seguy, co-founder of Jungle added onto that.
Photo credits to VerticalFarmDaily.com taken at Certhon
Out of its startup phase?
“It’s hard to say that the startup era has ended in vertical farming. Smaller companies or startups are always needed in order to create new opportunities, such as introducing new crops. New companies will enter the industry, driving others to stabilize their company at this point in order to get a proper business model,” says Nicolas Seguy, Managing director and co-founder of Jungle.
Gert-Jan added, “we’re definitely not at the end of the startup area. Up until today, production systems cannot be compared as not many are transparent about it. Once we get to the point where we can compare and apply standardization, we can see the end of the startup phase.”
“We’re not yet at the level of maturity that prevents any startup to come up with something new. We need to make business models scalable, resilient and profitable. Once that is done, external companies are needed to provide products and services that aren’t developed in-house. This leaves room for startups,” said Nicolas.
According to him, the scope and width of successful startups are reducing. Huge progress has been made in the past 5 to 6 years. Slowly, there is more access to honest data that helps others to become more efficient and grow as a successful company.
For more information:
Eric Dargent, Managing Partner
ed@mycelium.ag
Mycelium
www.mycelium.ag
For more information:
Nicolas Seguy, Managing director and co-founder
Jungle
www.jungle.bio
Gert-Jan van Staalduinen, Owner
