Global players and farmers around the world are committed to meeting the needs of growing populations by producing more, using less land and fewer resources, and implementing sustainable agriculture practices. Such practices “are intended to protect the environment, expand the Earth’s natural resource base, and maintain and improve soil fertility.”*
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, sustainability “covers many facets, including the economic (a sustainable farm should be a profitable business that contributes to a robust economy), the social (it should deal fairly with its workers and have a mutually beneficial relationship with the surrounding community), and the environmental.”**
In 2015, the member states of the UN adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a “universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.”
Goal 2 is “zero hunger,” which aims to “end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people – especially children – have sufficient and nutritious food all year. This involves promoting sustainable agricultural, supporting small-scale farmers and equal access to land, technology and markets. It also requires international cooperation to ensure investment in infrastructure and technology to improve agricultural productivity.”
How does AgroScout coordinate with sustainable principles and goals?
Our platform brings simple-to-operate and easy-to-understand technology to growers on any size farm in nearly every country on the globe.
Although we have chosen to focus initially on potatoes, the world’s fourth-largest crop, the technology has applications for other field crops.
With the AgroScout platform, there is no complex infrastructure to install or maintain, keeping investment to a minimum. We offer variable pricing plans – month-to-month, seasonal, or annual – to give growers greater flexibility. Corporate players and educational institutions can offer the platform to growers in their communities to further cooperation, extend the reach, and broaden the use of technology.
“Scouting” an entire field with our image collection component (mobile application) gives growers comprehensive information about the evidence of pests or disease for better overall decision-making and management. With the ability to have leaf-level detection and see GPS-tagged images to locate and navigate directly to individual plants or areas, growers can target areas to be treated and, more importantly, determine the best type of treatment to implement. Information provided by the AgroScout software will enable growers to reduce the number of pesticide or fungicide applications and use fewer resources.
The combination of simple operation and highly usable information is why we believe AgroScout is the agricultural technology that the grower, the farmer, the scout, or the agronomist will actually use. We promise.
References
*United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture, “Sustainable Agriculture” accessed 15 June 2020. https://nifa.usda.gov/topic/sustainable-agriculture
**Union of Concerned Scientists, “What is Sustainable Agriculture?” accessed 15 June 2020. https://ucsusa.org/resources/what-sustainable-agriculture
***Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, “Sustainable Development Goals” accessed 15 June 2020. http://www.fao.org/sustainable-development-goals/overview/fao-and-the-post-2015-development-agenda/sustainable-agriculture/en/ and United Nations Development Programme, “Sustainable Development Goals” accessed 15 June 2020. https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html
