California-based agtech FarmX offers an all-in-one platform with crop management, irrigation automation to maximise yield
FarmX dashboard showing sensor status and locations in a typical California farm. (Kubota Corporation.)
Kubota, a Japanese manufacturer of farm equipment and construction equipment, has invested an undisclosed amount in FarmX, a US-based agtech start-up offering a crop management platform.
Founded in 2014, FarmX provides an all-in-one platform to manage and automate irrigation, minimise crop stress and maximise yield.
Some of the features offered by FarmX’s platform include yield prediction, plant health monitoring, soil moisture monitoring, irrigation equipment automation, irrigation scheduling, 3D soil moisture reporting, water & energy usage reports, canopy & anomaly monitoring, frost prediction and in-field weather monitoring.
The firm claims that its platform can bring in increased profitability, increased precision in irrigation and fertigation, decreased water, power usage and work.
FarmX’s platform is the only one offering data from five sources
It also claims to be the only one combining five data sources including soil conditions, plant health, weather, frost and imaging.
With the investment in FarmX, Kubota aims to contribute to efficiency and profitability in farm management in the US and in other countries.
Last June, the Japanese company launched its Innovation Center as a division to pursue open innovation based on coordination with external partners.
One of the main focus areas for the Innovation Center is ‘farm management’, whose demand is touted to have been rising among fruit, vegetable, grape and nut growers.
The interest had led to the decision to invest in FarmX, which offers crop management services based on its modelling and technologies that use artificial intelligence (AI) and IoT sensors to offer data, analysis and predictions.
The company is also in talks of collaboration with startups such as Advanced Farm Technologies and Abundant Robotics in which we invested last August and this January, respectively.
Last month, the Japanese company invested in Escorts Limited, a tractor manufacturer in India. The investment is expected to increase the presence of Kubota in India.
The investment will help the two companies in deepening their cooperative relationship, by leveraging each other’s strengths and in creating synergy across their businesses, development, production, sales, distribution, and parts procurement, in a bid to extend their reach in the Indian market.