The background: In 2001, two experienced entrepreneurs Israel Fraier, the founder of Applitec Ltd., Omind/Entopia, and Cellutag, and Yuri Magrisso have been approached to build a system to enable farmers to report on their activities in the field. "We immediately asked whether it was possible to provide real-time reports from the field, so that the communications would be two-way, and that a farmer could not only report on what he was doing, but also what he was about to do, and receive a warning if he was making a mistake" says Fraier.
The original project failed to gain traction, but the idea stayed in the entrepreneurs' minds. In 2008, they decided to try again, but more ambitiously. The idea was to create a social network that would combine farmers' reports, field sensors, computerized forecast with automated and manual expert analysis to create real-time recommendations for the farmers.
The market: Increasing crop yields and improving nutritional security are the greatest challenges of the 21st century. This can be done in several ways, from genetic engineering of crops, through changing irrigation practices and the use of new fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers and the agronomists who advise them, need to combine the best irrigation, pesticide, and fertilizer protocols for their crops, their environment, season, and period. This involves a series of complex and variable decisions. >p>Today, there are a range of sensor solutions for the field that aim to facilitate informed decisions. "There are many sensors," says Fraier, but the information collected from them usually goes to proprietary solutions of a particular farmers organization, and they are complex and expensive to install. "What about the most important sensor - the human sensor; the farmer or agronomist who walks the fields?" asks ScanTask Ltd. VP Erez Ben-Nun. "Their information is not adequately documented in the computer systems. They write on paper, and then transfer the data to Excel."
The product: The idea was to create a generic and flexible information gathering system that would easily suit any environment or crop. A farmer in the field with a smartphone reports what he sees and the actions he is taking in response.
All the information from the local farmers is collected in the system and analyzed by agronomists, who can advise the farmers in real time. Farmers can also learn about the protocols used by their neighbors and draw their own conclusions. For example, a farmer can see that another farmer is using a pesticide that is ineffective this year, and switch to a different pesticide. The savings from one spraying a year can swing a farmer from a loss to profits.
"Globes": Do farmers have a problem in sharing information with their neighbors who might also be their competitors?
Ben-Nun: "Demand for food is so high today, that everything farmers produce will probably be bought. They have more to gain from sharing information to cut costs and boost harvests than to lose from competition.
"Still, people are people, so we offer two models: 'Glass Walls' or 'Glass Ceiling'. In the Glass Walls model, the information is shared with all farmers, and in the Glass Ceiling model, it is only disclosed to an adviser who has information from everyone. A farmer can decide whether to share information by the Glass Walls or the Glass Ceiling model. The only information that is always shared is the color of the field, which can tell the kind of crop. This is seen by everyone anyway."
On the basis of the data gathered from the system, it is possible for researchers to study the findings and make recommendations, which the system also distributes in real time. Farmers' customers, such as food companies, can also track crops they intend to buy. Today, customers send representatives to the field to check on crops' growth; the system can save some of this activity.
The system will be distributed via local agricultural experts’ entities in every country.
Operational status: The system's global launch was about six months ago, and it handles tens of thousands of plots that belong to hundreds of paying customers. Targeted ads may be added to the system at a later stage.
Fundraising: NIS 2 million from the founders and employees, and a grant from the Galileo project (without obligations).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 12, 2014
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