Give us five minutes and we’ll give you the top line on an important sustainability topic. For our second outing, we look at the use of sensors and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in food and farming to help feed the growing global population sustainably.
Wilful’s co-founder Narda Shirley interviews Stephen Murray Non-Executive Director, R3-IoT, an innovative remote sensor to cloud technology company and Principal at the impact investment firm, Cross Boundary Group.
Narda Shirley: So, Stephen, what’s the link between impact investing in emerging markets and Scottish tech scale-up R3-IoT?
Stephen Murray: Helping catalyse sustainable business in Africa and Asia over the last 20 years has given me a real appreciation of just how remote and disconnected from any kind of telecommunications infrastructure many rural farmers can be, so when I first heard about R3’s sensor to satellite tech working in remote parts of Scotland monitoring remote offshore salmon farms I could immediately see the opportunity to solve a bigger global problem. The other geographic link is that I am originally from Scotland, where R3 is currently based, so it’s good to be supporting Scottish innovation.
Narda: Word on the street?
Stephen: There are three macro forces at work driving demand for sensors in global food production:
The first is the need to increase food production sustainably within planetary boundaries to meet the needs of a growing global population – no surprises there.
The second driver is climate change, temperature increases, water stress and biodiversity loss. Water is becoming scarcer, not only in Africa but also in developed countries which have traditionally been big centres for agriculture, like California and Australia.
Lastly, with conflicts like Ukraine and crises like COVID, food security is high on the global agenda. We need to de-risk and de-centralise food production quickly. Making remote areas work with sensors is one solution, another is hyper-local urban farming. Vertical and urban farming also need sensors to deliver optimised growing conditions indoors (sometimes even underground) and often in the absence of natural light. The last word goes to food waste and the cold chain where sensors can help upstream producers minimise losses – estimated at as much as 40% for perishable export crops like runner beans and bananas.
Narda: What’s the market outlook?
Stephen: According to PwC, IoT-enabled Agricultural (IoTAg) monitoring is smart, connected agriculture’s fastest-growing technology segment projected to reach $4.5 billion by 2025.
It depends which research company report you believe, but the predictions are all bullish. At the higher end, the global agricultural sensors market was valued at USD 4.18 billion in 2020, which is expected to grow with a CAGR of 15.4% and reach USD 9.79 billion by 2026.
With a global population expected to grow to 9.7 billion in 2050, with highest growth in Asia and Africa, we need a 60% increase in food productivity according to the United Nations.
Narda: Key insight?
Stephen: 90% of the planet lacks cellular connectivity. Sensors can act as an early warning system for things like drought or lack of oxygen – conditions that could be fatal to plants and fish being reared for food. Ideally sensors need to be monitoring and sending back data constantly, but connectivity can be a huge challenge. Using satellites to connect sensors offers a solution. Stephen notes we are in the first wave of collecting data. The next wave, he predicts is visualization – optical sensors that can ‘see’ the environment and trigger remediation.
‘We have to learn to interpret the data and act on it. Machine learning can help producers to identify patterns that can be helpful in predicting outcomes. ‘Most parts of the world don’t know they have a problem until it happens and by the time they find out, massive losses can be incurred.”
Narda: Must have jargon/latest developments?
Stephen: A European Commission report, talks about the fourth agricultural revolution increasing the use of IoT and sensors on farms and allowing farmers to make informed decisions.
Low-cost AI soil sensors could help farmers curb fertilizer use according to a report in Nature Food. Imperial College researchers in the UK are developing sensors which are expected to be commercialised within 3-5 years. Over fertilization has so far rendered 12% of once-arable land worldwide unusable. Excess nitrogen fertilizer releases nitrous oxide into the air, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide which contributes to the climate crisis.
At the World Biodiversity Forum Syngenta Group unveiled its new solar powered Biodiversity Sensor Project. It offers autonomous solar powered, continuous monitoring of insects on farmland as the first step towards a continuous stream of global biodiversity data to give researchers, policy makers and farmers the information they need to help biodiversity thrive.
Smart IoT Irrigation uses water judiciously and helps farmers achieve higher levels of crop yield with a minimal amount of water. United Nilgiri Tea Estates Company is using a system on its tea plantations in India designed and implemented by Jain irrigation.
Narda: Name droppers?
Stephen: Sensor Sensei at R3-IoT is Co-founder and CEO, Allan Cannon. And if you don’t think it’s rocket science, tell that to his co-founder and CTO, Kevin Quillien, who previously worked as Head of Spacecraft Design at Clyde Space.
Michael Stanley Pedersen, CEO Fauna Photonics, (a Syngenta partner in biodiversity sensors) is positioned at the intersection of two global megatrends: Precision agriculture and biodiversity.
Jason Heckathorn, Founder & Chief Sustainability Officer, Forever Oceans is pioneering environmentally friendly deep sea fish farming.
Ben Swan, Founder Sustenir, is the Australian tech king of Vertical farming launched in Singapore (fun fact, his granny was THE Granny Smith of the apples fame).
Tim Chambers, InspiraFarms Co-Founder, off-grid, on farm, cold and packing rooms that reduce food losses and allow remote performance monitoring in emerging markets.
Narda: Address book contacts?
Stephen: Censis Scotland’s Innovation Centre for sensing, imaging and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.
Global AgTech Alliance, through the work of a consortium of industry-leading organizations, is a principal source of research, advocacy, and education in the areas of precision agriculture and digital farming.
The International Society of Precision AgricultureISPA is a non-profit professional scientific organization whose mission is to advance the science of precision agriculture globally.
AZoSensors educates and informs a worldwide audience of researchers, engineers and scientists with the latest industry news, information and insights from the Sensors industry.
Farm Tech Society an international non-profit industry association that unites and supports the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry, seeking to strengthen the sector through the development and implementation of resilient and future proof methods and technologies for indoor growing.
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Narda Shirley is Wilful Group Co-founder and Gong Communications Founder.
