Per-Plant Precision
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Over the past dozen years, technologists have designed sensors to collect data on almost every aspect of the farm. And now with advancements in artificial intelligence, the idea of per-plant precision farming can become a reality. Mark DeSantis of Bloomfield Robotics says this level of data can actually inform a lot of important decisions.
DeSantis… “ Initially we thought, well, we're gonna just collect a lot of data about that farm and we're gonna collect it regularly and we'll be able to do very accurate yield prediction. And that was kind of the holy grail that we started off pursuing. Along the way, customers would say, well, actually I need to know when to do de leafing. I actually need to know before we harvest the blueberries, where should I send the people who are gonna pick those blueberries?”
But the challenge has been how to interact with all that data in an actionable way. Well, that’s where AI comes in.
DeSantis… “ So how do you present that to the grower? Well, what you do is you allow the grower to do something like these LLMs that are out there now. You allow the grower to ask questions. What's the average size of my blueberries on this row? The number and variety of things you can ask it are, are infinite. It's now a knowledge base of the condition of every plant in your vineyard.”
This ability to interact with data makes the promise of precision agriculture that much more real.
