Optimizing insights in business activities with new software ABS

ABS Production is new, web-based software solution for seed production and multiplication companies developed by Agro Business Solutions (ABS). "With ABS Production one can manage relations like customers and growers, contracts, fields, varieties, lots, field inspections and quality results," the team…

US grower AppHarvest buys robot making company

The US greenhouse company AppHarvest has acquired Root AI, an artificial intelligence farming startup that creates intelligent robots to help manage high-tech indoor farms. "The acquisition of Root AI and its robotic universal harvester, Virgo, is expected to provide us with a baseline of harvesting…

Photo 208660377 © Wirestock | Dreamstime.com

Taking indoor farming operations to new heights

Conveyor systems technology can help indoor farming operations grow to new heights while improving productivity, efficiency and ergonomics, according to Ultimation Industries LLC, a leader in conveyor technology and automation for over 30 years. “Harnessing unused vertical space through the use of…

Overview of technologies that help fighting food waste

This week’s PMA virtual town hall focused on technologies that work to reduce food waste. Ed Tracy, PMA’s Vice President of Supply Chain and Sustainability, explains: “More and more consumers are looking to support brands and organizations whose goals align with theirs. Among the values they look for is…

New Zealand has a huge tech opportunity in the Middle East's growing horticulture industry

An international consulting company says New Zealand has a real opportunity to be a partner of choice with the Middle East in providing "world-leading agritech solutions" to a growing agriculture sector. Alpha Kennedy, from Prime Consulting International, told delegates at the MobileTECH Ag event in…

US (NY): Thrive Agritech releases new 600W Pinnacle LED grow light

Thrive Agritech has released the new Pinnacle LED grow light. "Energy-efficient LED technology allows the 600W Pinnacle light to effectively replace the best 1,000W…

Award for biodegradable paper technology

At the 2021 Green Expo held in Queensland, Australia, Ellepot’s newest development in paper technology, the Ellepot Organic 2.0, won the award for best new product in the Allied Trade category. The paper material in Ellepot Organic 2.0 is certified by the Soil Association, FSC, Rainforest Alliance and…

Judge rules: This lettuce can be organic

Good news for the organic growers of the US. Or at least, for the organic hydroponic growers of the US. The U.S. District Court in San Francisco has affirmed the legality of U.S. Department of Agriculture certification of organic hydroponic operations. This means that the organic label can be used for…

Digitaltrends.com

Astroagriculture: How we’ll grow crops on Mars

If we ever hope to send people to live on Mars for an extended period of time, we’ll need to keep them warm, safe, and well-fed. That last requirement poses a challenge on a mission that can carry only a limited amount of supplies.  Plants are hardy things, but they have some essential requirements. To grow…

High-tech farm trends: a glossary

Below are technologies related to agricultural and natural manufacturing under four key areas of accelerating change, many of which are already in use today: sensors, food, automation and engineering. SensorsAir & soil sensors: Enable a real-time understanding of current farm, forest or body of water…

High tech tissue culture lab housed in 40’ shipping container

Rootstock supplier Fairplant and tissue culture specialist ViVi, part of Visser Horti Systems, work together as strategic partners to implement a new innovation for the blueberry tissue culture market. Three 40ft containers with a fully functioning micropropagation laboratory inside will be the…

New water-powered chemical injector introduced

Dosatron International, LLC, with corporate offices in Clearwater, Florida, is excited to officially launch the New 40 GPM series of water-powered chemical injectors. The Dosatron D40MZ series is water-powered, so no electricity is needed, and includes three models to choose from. The D40MZ2 with a dilution…

Washing dirty crates in a looping

In Maasdijk, Growers United has finally taken up residence in their new location at Honderdland. This means a lot of product is going in and out at the big player in cultivating and packaging greenhouse vegetables. To keep all the crates used for this clean, Unifortes recently supplied  two washing installations.…

UK: Drones will be mainstream delivery option by 2040

As unmanned technology and network scale dramatically bring down costs, drones could account for one-third of same-day package deliveries by 2040. While security and privacy…

Source: Larta Institute

Aiding indoor farmers in finding funding for indoor projects

In this podcast, Nicola Kerslake with Contain is interviewed by Joe Swartz and Nick Greens in their Polygreens Podcast. Nicola tells all about her fintech platform which she found to aid indoor farmers in finding funding for their indoor projects.  Nicola Kerslake founded Contain Inc which aids indoor farmers…

Vertical Air Solutions

How to eliminate microclimates, improve air circulation and supply conditioned air inside of racks?

As the vertical farming industry pushes the boundaries of space use efficiency, it is also confronted with challenges resulting from an increasing rack height and a decreasing distance between shelves, or tiers. These challenges are centered on the limited air circulation within racks and the development…

Organizzazione Orlandelli s.r.l

Introducing trolleys with C-LED lighting kit

Nowadays, nursery techniques of producing small and young plants in an indoor environment provide for different protocols depending on the type of starting material. In vitro micropropagation, the production of cuttings, the grafting of young horticultural plants, etc., are generally conducted in…

The warehouse of the future

The future of warehouse logistics. These are the STO Express logistics robots in the sorting centre of Xuzhou, China.    

World engineering day: feeding a planet

If you improve the efficiency of farming it will change the world for all of humanity, and much of that will be due to the work of engineers, writes George Newbold, Lead Automation Engineer, Stacked Farm.One of the challenges we face at our vertical farm, Stacked Farm, and one of the challenges in the…

‘Keeping leafy greens fresh is an exact science’

California and Arizona are producing more than 90% of US lettuce. If you live anywhere east of these two states, your leafy greens have traveled a long way to get there. How…

Study on analytic tools to measure future plants stress

New work from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, and Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) highlights the potential of recently developed analytical tools that can provide tissue-cell or organelle-specific information on living plants…

"We offer the agriculture industry an alternative to Microsoft"

Tech innovator WayBeyond is taking on Microsoft’s Power BI and Excel products to give growers an alternative solution for integrating all their business data into one digital platform.   “Historically, the technology to manage your data was limited. Growers have gotten used to spreadsheets and other historical tools,…

New lubricant for engines on non-natural gas

Q8Oils and INNIO Jenbacher have today launched Jenbacher S Oil 40 gas engine oil, an innovative new lubricant for engines that operate on non-natural gas (including, but not limited to biogas, sewage gas and landfill gas). This is one of the first products developed by the long-term global partnership…

New lightweight portable deck showcased

Pipp Horticulture, a provider of space‐saving, multi‐level mobile cultivation systems, announces the new Elevate Platform System. The Elevate Platform System is a robust yet lightweight and portable deck that allows cultivators to access PIPP’s Multi-Tier Mobile Grow Racks quickly, and most importantly,…

Farming on asteroids: Science future, not science fiction

Newswise — If you want to learn how to farm successfully and grow crops, here’s a novel place to turn to: The UND Department of Space Studies. Then again, this advice might be a tad limited, given that not many are aspiring to grow crops on asteroids millions of miles from Earth. But UND Assistant…

Indoor farming in Mexico discussed

More than 34% of Mexico's agricultural production ends up in landfills each year due to inefficiencies during production, processing, storage, and transportation. Then there's billion liters of water lost due to poor irrigation annually in traditional agriculture in Mexico. 2019 was the driest year in…

Scientists are growing grapes in space to save Earth’s wine supply

At approximately 8pm EST on Wednesday, January 13, a SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Florida. Inside were stem cells, a sextant designed for emergency navigation in deep space, and tissue chips created to help treat heart conditions on Earth.…

Light bar to grow healthy plants

Vitabeam produced their first LED light bar, which emits a combination of light wavelengths called VQe (Vitabeam Quantum energy). The wavelengths are all safe for human exposure and have properties…

Cambridge engineers unveil Digital Twin to support the ‘future of farming’

Hydroponic farming challenges traditional methods in favour of soil-less, water-based farming processes. To ensure the ongoing operational success of farms such as these, Cambridge engineers have developed a virtual forecasting model to provide bespoke feedback to farmers. The researchers show how a…

CityVeg: Meet this Greek robot gardener

Two friends, 28-year-old Konstantinos Vaiopoulos and 27-year-old Michalis Moraitis, who work at the CERTH Institute of Biochemistry and Agrotechnology, created a robotic system, CityVeg, which adapts to any flowerbed and supports plants with precision irrigation. Inspired by the philosophy of the…

New generation of optical sensors ready for introduction

Optical sensor manufacturer Sendot started in 2015. Not long after, the first sensors that were developed in-house were introduced to growers. The time has now come for a new generation of optical sensors which have developed into a complete package to help growers measure and control better. Bert van Tol…

“We are able to digitalize any process that currently requires paper”

Although digitalization made great strides in the past year, there are still many benefits to be gained. For the fresh produce sector specifically, Zofto Solutions has been established. “With our software tools, we can digitalize any ‘paper’ procedure in a very uncomplicated way,” says Anton Alibekov…

© Angkana Kittayachaweng | Dreamstime

Out of this world: Photosynthesis measured from space

Because of their ability to make valuable products from organic compounds like CO2, plants are known as "primary producers." Gross primary production (GPP), which quantifies the rate of CO2 fixation in plants through photosynthesis, is a key metric to track the health and performance of any plant-based…

Vertical barrels components "ready for vertical farming integration"

The aponix vertical barrel system is an alternative vertical NFT solution from Germany that can be used instead of rack systems to use vertical space more efficiently in hydroponic setups and at the same time use natural sunlight better. The system aims to maximize the number of possible grow spaces per…

Study on species-independent analytical tools for next-generation agriculture

Innovative approaches are urgently required to alleviate the growing pressure on agriculture to meet the rising demand for food. A key challenge for plant biology is to bridge…

Learning to develop drones for crop pollination is "dream come true"

The prospect of getting paid to learn how to program robots and work for a deep-tech firm deeply excited Mr Cheng Yi Chiao. So the father of two decided to take up a nine-month traineeship programme to do just that. Last November, the 37-year-old enrolled in SGInnovate's Innovation and Enterprise…

"Light installation that can be used much longer"

Light installations are a big investment for indoor farms, and unfortunately growers need to re-invest every 4 to 8 years in a new installation depending on the lifetime. Mother’s PlantSpectrum modules can be used through the infinity program, the company announces. "Growers can preserve their…

"First water cooled multi-layer LED fixture for stable indoor growth"

Oreon, a Dutch developer of LED grow lights for greenhouse horticulture, is introducing the first water cooled multi-layer LED fixture: Embrace. The Dutch Powerhouse Embrace is specially designed for vertical and indoor farming. In multilayer cultivation heat and humidity are very important and Oreon…

Research on microgreens farming in vertical hydroponic system

Microgreens are species of vegetables and aromatic herbs in an early stage of growing, which are consumed after a vegetative cycle of 10-14 days. At first, they gained their popularity in luxury restaurants for the original flavour they gave to dishes. Over the years, their nutritional and therapeutic…

Study on outdoor vertical farming on textile substrates

Vertical farming may solve the problem that in many regions of the world, more area would be necessary to produce food, than it is available. Especially in large cities and other densely crowded areas, vertical farming can provide an efficient and eco-friendly way to feed people. While indoor vertical…

Australian agtech startup expands to Denver following $23M funding round

Coming on the heels of a large fundraise earlier this year, an Australian agtech startup is putting down roots in Denver for its first North American office. AgriWebb, a ranch management software company, announced its official launch in the U.S this week with a new Denver HQ. “Our mission at AgriWebb…

CAN: How to off-set higher labour operating costs

Let’s start with the good news first: total sales from Canada’s greenhouse fruit and vegetable sector increased by 5.0% to $1.6 billion in 2019, continuing a trend of increases that began in 2013. The leading provinces were Ontario at (65.0%), followed by British Columbia (19.2%), Quebec (9.3%) and…

New paint makes drives more environmental friendly

Starting from the 1st of February, the painting process of the motor gearboxes of De Gier Systems has been adjusted. Ever since, motor gearboxes out of the GW range will be spray-painted with a water based environmental friendly paint. "This will bring us a lot of advantages besides the environmental…

Maximize and control pollination effectiveness with bumblebee-hive automation and analytics device

How active is your bumblebee hive? No clue? You're not the only one. Even though the activeness of bumblebees can be affected, there's hardly a solution to keep track of it. Up until now. The company Agrolabs has launched B-control, a one-of-a-kind bumblebee-hive automation and analytics device. "The…

CubicFarms

Bringing food production closer to home

Dave Dinesen, CEO of CubicFarms, believes that we are experiencing a global crisis in food security and that technology is necessary to feed the growing global population. CubicFarm Systems Corp. is a local chain agtech company headquartered in British Columbia, Canada. The company specializes in the…

Lighting as a platform - "new approach to horticulture"

TSRgrow, a horticulture solutions provider, is proud to announce Lighting as a Platform™ (LaaP), a new technology for indoor growers. Lighting as a Platform (LaaP) brings…

NASA awards good ideas to feed astronauts in space

NASA is prepared to pay $500,000 for a good idea to help feed astronauts on long-term space missions with something other than dried, packaged food from Earth. The space agency has set a July 30 deadline on its Deep Space Food Challenge, when it will choose a winning idea. The Canadian Space Agency…

Spinach sending emails: study on plant signalling with nanotubes

Through nanotechnology, engineers at MIT in the US have transformed spinach into sensors capable of detecting explosive materials. These plants are then able to wirelessly relay this information back to the scientists. When the spinach roots detect the presence of nitroaromatics in groundwater, a…

Study on uncovering microbiomes for urban farming

NUS researchers have reconstructed nearly a thousand microbial genomes from green leafy vegetables commonly consumed in Singapore to improve the quality of urban farmed crops. This study is a first step towards uncovering the microbiomes associated with urban farmed vegetables. It also marks progress in…

"More light, spectra, and flexibility with new vertical farming fixture"

In a normal year the team with Current, a Daintree company, would have shined at the tradeshows these months. And not just the team - also their new fixture would have. Now we're happy to show it via our screens: here's the Arize Lynk². "Our next generation indoor vertical farming fixture," Colin…

Transferring excess heat and humidity without gapping

The recently enacted Greenhouse Light Abatement Bylaw in Ontario, but also other light pollution concerns across North America have created issues for growers to choose between light pollution vs excess heat inside their greenhouse. Closing traditional light abatement screens during the night means…