Nine companies competing for spots in Phase II of AgLaunch365 program
Nine early stage agricultural technology start-ups focused on row crop innovations and sustainability are competing for a spot in Phase II of AgLaunch365 program offered by the Memphis-based AgLaunch organization.
According to Rachel Kaufman, Senior Director at AgLaunch, the final selections will be made in early December by a committee composed of investors and farmers.
This year’s Row Crop Challenge is focused on technologies that accelerate the adoption of sustainable production practices toward the farm-of-the-future, specifically outlined in the Cotton Trust Protocol that can be applied to other crops and cropping systems. Up to six spots will be available for the intensive programming that begins in January 2021.
The teams are:
- Agricision Inc.of Sedley, VA., an agtech company founded by farmers, for farmers. Agricision has developed ScoutX2, a drone-based method, collects data to determine crop and soil health, disease, stand count, and images of insects and weeds and stores them in an agricultural cloud database.
- CropZilla Software Inc. of Dublin, OH has developed a farm machinery telemetry analysis for optimizing field operations and supporting capital purchase decisions.
- Global Neighbor Inc., based in Dayton, OH, has launched, the weed seed destroyer, its first product that uses light to make weed seeds collected at harvest non-viable, thereby addressing the problem of escape and herbicide-resistant weeds in grain crops.
- Index Biosystems Inc. of Toronto designs genetic traceability into food system products, like the genetically barcoded yeast product which can be used as a biological label alongside any food system product.
- JLI Robotics of Aurora, NE has developed the Grain Weevil, a mobile robot that scurries across the top of the grain inside a storage bin performing tasks that no human should ever do.
- LeafTech Ag of Greenfield, IN provides an integrated handheld digital lab and crop management solution for enhanced crop quality and performance.
- NECi, located in Lake Linden, MI develops reliable and cost-effective tools for nutrient management. NECi’s test kits enable users to obtain timely, accurate information on soil and crop health on-site,
- ReEnvision Ag of Nora Springs, IA has developed the ReEnvision Ag Planter (REAP) system to allow farmers to plant in more diverse conditions without the pain of compaction the current industry standard causes.
- Spornado Inc., another Toronto-based start-up, has developed early alert system for crop disease helps growers optimize their pesticide use. The wind-powered air sampler and highly sensitive DNA analysis allows farmers to know when crop disease is in the air long before it is seen in the field, enabling them to spray precisely; saving time, money, and yields.
