Staying ahead of the technology curve means strengthening your competitive advantage. That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into the agriculture sector. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked AgriTech startups enhancing crop protection.
Out of 417, the Global Startup Heat Map highlights 5 Top AgriTech Startups enhancing Crop Protection
The insights of this data-driven analysis are derived from the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 2 093 000+ startups & scaleups globally. The platform gives you an exhaustive overview of emerging technologies & relevant startups within a specific field in just a few clicks.
The Global Startup Heat Map below reveals the distribution of the 417 exemplary startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. Further, it highlights 5 AgriTech startups that we hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised, and more. You get to explore the solutions of these 5 startups & scaleups in this report. For insights on the other 412 crop protection solutions, get in touch.
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Agrematch provides an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based Compounds Search Engine
Genetic engineering of a crop requires selecting specific compounds and matching them with other plants to produce the required traits. The enormous amount of compounds present within plants and identifying the right match poses a significant challenge for current genetic engineering tools. Consequently, the high cost of research and development (R&D) in this process limits the applications of genetically engineered crops. To overcome this barrier, startups are creating databases with plant compound information to speed up compound discovery and matching processes.
Israeli startup Agrematch provides an AI search engine to navigate the massive list of plant compounds. Their platform, Agresense, is a compound-organism interaction prediction system that takes a compound-based product approach. Its multi-layered discovery engine uses data science techniques to generate proprietary computational models to produce viable solutions. In addition to crop security, the platform assists in finding solutions for agricultural fertilizers, stimulants, and safeners, among others.
Agro Science Capital advances Sustainable Crop Protection
Farmers utilize chemicals as a cost-effective method to improve crop quality and yield while protecting them from pests and diseases. However, with current chemicals, they result in increasing pesticide resistance which, in turn, requires stronger chemicals that harm crops and the soil. To overcome this, startups are developing natural or sustainable agrochemical solutions to protect crops without the negative effects of traditional chemical agents.
Swiss startup Agro Science Capital focuses on the development of a sustainable agrochemical technology. Their development process begins with a discovery phase through natural sources or chemical synthesis to generate a set of candidate molecules. This is followed by preliminary toxicological and environmental tests, which finally lead to small or large-scale field tests. The startup’s value chain assists government institutes, in-house R&D centers, and research centers with formulating farm protection technologies.
Precision AI enables Drone-based Pest Control
There are a variety of plant pathogens, such as fungal, bacterial, and viral, which damages plant parts above and below the ground. The identification of symptoms, as well as knowing when and how to effectively control diseases, is a major task for farmers. Diseases and pests also need to be identified as soon as possible to limit their spread and damage to healthy crops. Startups are offering drone-based monitoring solutions that detect insects and diseased plants without requiring human hours.
Precision AI is a Canadian startup that develops drones for precision agricultural crop spraying. Their solution incorporates proprietary AI-powered sprayers that only spray weeds and not crops. Moreover, the drone AI generates weed maps that allow for more precision spraying on large scales while avoiding over spraying. The drones also provide farmers with a convenient method to navigate around natural land hazards, hills, and flooded fields for crop monitoring and spraying.
Agrixtech provides AI-based Crop Disease Identification
Farms require protective measures to mitigate or prevent damage from crop diseases. Additionally, depending on the region and crop type, plantations may be at a higher risk of crop diseases. Although advanced solutions are available to protect crops, they are not economically viable for smaller farms. To address this gap, startups are providing easy-to-use software to analyze crop diseases.
German startup Agrixtech offers an AI-powered mobile application to identify crop diseases. The application captures a picture of diseased plants, which is then analyzed to understand the exact disease and eliminate it. In addition, it enables farmers to match their farmland with crop types and use best practices for daily maintenance. Their solution focuses on providing small-scale farms and farmers with an economical tool to identify and protect their crops from diseases.
Lepidext develops a Bioactive Pesticide
Farms invest a significant amount of time and resources into pest control solutions to protect their crops. This is commonly done using insecticides and pesticides which not only affect pests but also affect other friendly and beneficial species such as bees and butterflies. Besides, most chemical solutions contain toxic substances that may affect crops or the soil on which they are grown. For these reasons, startups develop biopesticides that are based on the cellular structure of insects to avoid harm to other useful insects or the crops themselves.
Lepidext is a US-based startup that develops eco-friendly insecticides that use naturally occurring viruses. Their product, Insterus-Hz, reduces moth egg-laying in crops by using a strain of virus known for causing sterility in corn earthworms. This prevents insects from developing increased resistance to pesticides and insecticides as well as allows farmers to fight against disease-resistant insects using an economical and natural alternative.
Discover more AgriTech Startups
AgriTech startups such as the examples highlighted in this report focus on biological pest control, bio-based chemicals, and sustainable agriculture. While all of these technologies play a major role in advancing the agricultural industry, they only represent the tip of the iceberg. To explore more agricultural technologies, simply get in touch to let us look into your areas of interest. For a more general overview, you can download our free AgriTech Innovation Report to save your time and improve strategic decision-making.
