Illumitex Shines Light on A.I. Potential for Indoor Ag
November 12, 2020
This is the third of four Q&A features honoring winners of Greenhouse Grower’s Medal of Excellence Awards. This installment features Jeff Bisberg, CEO, FarmVisionAI by Illumitex. Special thanks to Title Sponsor WestRock for its support of this program.
What benefits does artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology bring to the horticulture industry, and how can growers get a better grasp on how it can be beneficial to them?
Bisberg: Technological innovation in the horticulture industry is critical to meet the increasing demand for food and medicine. Studies have shown that current farming strategies are insufficient to meet growing demand and population growth. Technology has helped many markets and is the next logical step in reducing crop loss and improving yields. Computer vision is one of the most critical technologies to achieving that goal, and it’s only just now ready for prime time.
The benefit A.I. technology brings to the horticulture industry is scouting at scale utilizing computer vision. This level of scouting did not exist until now. Currently, growers typically walk the greenhouse and scout once or twice a day looking for pest pressure, nutrient deficiencies, and other plant health issues. Now, technology such as FarmVisionAI tracks the greenhouse and captures the issues at onset, decreasing the time of taking corrective action and ultimately reducing loss and increasing yield.
At a high level, the greatest benefit is to improve the overall productivity of controlled-environment agriculture. Farming at scale is very difficult, so start with a simple proposition: how can you ensure that every single plant in the greenhouse is thriving? If you can make sure every plant is healthy, your production quality and yield will increase, and you can become more profitable.
While most technology is focused on inputs and processes, what’s missing is data that tells you about the plants themselves. A.I. technology fills that missing link by giving the grower real-time information on every plant. The grower can use that data to drive all the details required to grow the best plants possible, and business improvement will follow.
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