By 2050, the global population is projected to reach 9.8 billion people. The rapid population growth exerts significant pressure on biodiversity, water resources, and especially agriculture. We interviewed three agtech companies at the Paris International Agricultural Show to see how startups can contribute to feeding future generations sustainably.
Production of biostimulants from Axioma. Photo credit: Axioma
Stress-free Plants
Clément Soulier, Deputy Chief Executive of Axioma told us how the startup is helping crops better adapt to climate pressures.
“With Axioma, we're trying to offer farmers new agricultural input solutions that will enable crops to combat and better withstand the stress caused by climate change, by providing biostimulants and biocontrol products that will complement the solutions that already exist on the market.”
The startup was created in 2012 by Anthony Bugat whose vision was to bring new solutions to agriculture in order to feed the population in a sustainable way. It was when he became a father that he felt the need to contribute to the evolution of agriculture towards more sustainable practices.
“Agriculture is the foundation of our food,” Soulier explained. “However it will have to integrate more and more solutions, such as biostimulants, but also artificial intelligence and precision farming, and it's a combination of all these solutions that will enable tomorrow's agriculture to continue to perform, to become even more efficient and more sustainable. That’s obviously a goal for our generation, but above all, for future generations.”
Hyperplan map data of farming parcels. Photo credit: Hyperplan
Insights on Agricultural Production with Satellite Data
How food gets from farms to our plates is a complicated process. Startup Hyperplan is using satellite data to help monitor crops and bring more visibility to the whole value chain.
“When we first launched we heard that the actors along the value chain were lacking visibility on the production,” explained Thibault Miremont, Head of Customer Success at Hyperplan. “So we are trying to help commercial teams monitor their market potential in their territory and their market shares in order to know an easy way where to prospect first. We mainly help agricultural cooperatives that are buying crops from farmers and reselling the crops to other clients.”
The data they gather from satellites is processed through Hyperplan’s AI-powered software and offers a global view of production and real-time crop monitoring.
Naïo Technologies vineyard robot. Photo credit: Naïo Technologies
Robot Farmers
A pioneer in agricultural robotics solutions, Naïo Technologies creates robots to help make farming easier. We spoke with a representative of Interfel, the inter-professional association for fresh fruit and vegetables that was presenting one of Naïo Technologies robots at the show.
“We're presenting a robot that can be used by fruit and vegetable growers, and in particular this model can be used in greenhouses and passes between the rows of vegetables.”
The 100% electric lightweight robots are already able to weed, hoe, seed, and transport between different types of plants but will eventually be able to help farmers in different ways.
“There are several issues for growers at the moment, including herbicide use. We're going to try more and more to reduce the use of herbicides, by mechanical work. And so, the use of robots is going to limit the amount of hard work, allowing growers to focus on more difficult tasks.”
Innovation Harvest
The future of agriculture lies in innovation and sustainability. By harnessing technology and creative solutions, these startups are already helping to create a resilient and abundant food supply for generations to come.
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