ASX-listed agricultural IoT company, CropLogic (ASX: CLI) has partnered with SproutX — a joint venture between financial advisory company Findex and the National Farmers’ Federation — Mildura Regional Development and the Victorian Government to deploy its technology as part of Mildura Regional Development’s Smart Farm project.
CropLogic collects field sensor data, climate data and aerial images and processes the data in the cloud to deliver optimised, daily input prescriptions to growers in the format of their choice. It claims that its services are underpinned by “30 years of scientific research in forecasting plant growth by Plant & Food Research, New Zealand’s premier national food research company.”
The company says this new target area represents approximately 74 percent of Australia’s horticulture acres with a gross product at the farm gate of $3.4 billion per annum. Also, it says the Victorian Government has classified agribusiness as a prime strategic industry for Mildura, and that Viticulture and wineries have been identified by the Victorian Government as vital tourism assets for Mildura.
Some of CropLogic’s earliest deployments were in potato growing areas on the US west coast and CEO James Cooper-Jones said these were being successful.
“The response and uptake of CropLogic realTime in the Columbia Basin, USA could not have been better this season. A big part of this success was the expertise and local knowledge developed through CropLogic’s regional partnerships there.”
He added: “A lot of the tree and viticultre crops that are seeing a resurgence and boom in the Mallee / Riverina are crops CropLogic has been servicing in the USA. We’re getting great feedback from these growers and we’re eager to bring this technology to Mildura and contribute to grower’s optimum yield rates there too.”
Mildura’ smart farm
Mildura Regional Development’s Smart Farm project aims to foster growth of the region’s horticultural and agriculture sector, through the uptake of advancing technology.
It will “use industry leading research and development and education and training to ensure farmers are equipped to seize opportunities … [and] will provide vocational education and training that unites experience with knowledge through links between universities, horticultural experts and technology companies, growers, robotic specialists and IIoT from around the world.”
Its stated goal is to “develop, test and commercialise IIoT solutions and combine them with robotics to increase productivity and sustainability on farms [and to be] a world recognised centre of excellence in applied education, tech research and commercial development.”
No longer and NZ company
When it announced its move into Mildura CropLogic described itself as “an award winning New Zealand agricultural technology company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.” However in April the company announced plans to cut head office staff by more than half, wind back R&D and relocate its head office to Australia.
The company — recognised as one of the most promising early stage technology companies at the New Zealand 2017 TIN100 Awards — justified the move in part on the availability of grant funding for R&D in Australia.
In a statement to the ASX at the time it said: “A relocation of the head office to regional Australia will allow greater ease of access to CropLogic executives and staff to key revenue partners and potential clients. It will also, where appropriate, make available certain grants and rebates such as the research and development grant.”
The company also announced plans to wind back internal R&D saying a greater focus would be given, where possible, to undertaking this research and development in partnership with appropriate institutions and in countries and regions that are key revenue targets such as Australia and the USA and in countries and regions that offer research and development incentives, such as the research and development grant available in Australia.
