FarmSense uses sensors and machine learning to bug-proof crops
- BySaksham Daga | January 8, 2022
Gnawing, digging, and infecting: According to USDA’s agricultural research services, pests like the Japanese beetle (pictured above) cause agricultural damage in excess of US $ 100 billion each year. Also, in addition to plant diseases that can be transmitted by exoskeleton baggers, arthropods lose 40% of the world’s agricultural production each year. Join FarmSense, a Riverside, CA-based Agtech startup trying to solve the pest problem. The company has developed optical sensors and new classification systems based on machine learning algorithms to identify and track insects in real time. What is important here is real-time information.

They claim that the real-time information provided by the sensors enables early detection and timely use of pest control equipment such as pesticides and biopesticides. Current mechanical traps used for surveillance may not provide important information for 10-14 days after the bedbug arrives.
“Some of these beetles can only live as adults for about five days, so if you know there is a problem, the problem has already taken root and is now a bigger problem. “We are,” said Eamonn Keogh, co-founder of FarmSense. “If we knew it in real time, we could have put the intervention in one place, achieved much better results, saved pesticides, saved labor, and saved crops from damage. . “