SpaceTime Labs and Small Robot Company partner to co-develop swarms of fourth-generation autonomous drones and terrestrial robots
SpaceTime Labs and Small Robot Company announced today their agreement to codevelop swarms of fourth-generation autonomous drones and terrestrial robots to transform Latin American Agriculture with Per Plant Farming Solutions.
The strategic partnership will focus on co-developing on the ground, end-to-end “per plant” planting, weeds, pests & disease management, and nutrition management Farming as a Service (FaaS) value propositions delivered through an integrated delivery “sense-predict-act” value chain for all key commercial crops in Latin America. The companies will work with leading Brazilian and Argentinian farmers to prototype, test, and scale Per Plant Farming - maximizing yields whilst reducing the impact on the environment. Agriculture is a $5 trillion industry, with the precision farming market a huge global opportunity for investors. Goldman Sachs predicts that the market for digital agricultural technology will be $240 billion by 2050, up from just over $5 billion today. The first intended outcome of Per Plant farming is a dramatic uplift in yields.
Per plant farming exists today on a small scale in research institutes and in trial farms, where scientists are able to achieve yields that are 235% higher than the in-field commercial average for wheat and 150% higher than the in-field commercial average for corn. In addition to increasing yields, “per plant” farming will increase farmer profitability and dramatically reduce the negative impacts of industrial farming on the environment.
“We believe that our strategic partnership with Small Robot Company will allow us to automate a “sense-predict-act” delivery model that acts upon the many operational biotic and abiotic variables that are responsible for yield productivity gains and losses at a plant level leveraging AI, Computational Biology and Robotics technologies – so that our partner farmers in Latin America can have a step-change in performance across the board.”
“The opportunity is immense. Latin America is ahead of the curve for Agritech innovation. Our strategic partnership with SpaceTime Labs means that we can now enter this market with confidence. Now is the time for us to work together to co-create a higher-yielding and more sustainable farming model in Latin America, starting with Brazil and Argentina. The recent huge advances in Agtech finally make this possible and farmers are integral to the environmental solution.”
“The UK is a world leader in technology and is at the forefront of the Agri-Tech industry. We have pioneering scientists and expert farmers, so it’s fantastic to see British businesses like the Small Robot Company reach international markets and develop new innovative technology for Latin American farmers. This is just one great example of the global trading opportunities out there for UK Agri-Tech industry.”