Happenchance occurrences, mishaps, and twists of fate often lead to something wildly different from what was expected. These sudden encounters prove to be turning points.
The genesis of eAgronom, an Estonian AgTech company founded in 2016, can be traced to a broken computer and the scramble to fix it. Over the years it has grown to a network of cultivators. The company recently raised over $7 million to create a carbon credits platform for farmers.
“Agriculture is an industry ripe for disruption and the AgTech market is already accelerating as the world wakes up to the fact that we soon need to feed 10BN people with fewer available resources”, says Robin Saluoks, CEO and Co-Founder, eAgronom in an exclusive interview with Geospatial World.
The beginnings of eAgronom were quite accidental and came about when my father broke his computer. Today’s farmers rely heavily on computers for running their businesses, but unfortunately, the software my father was using to manage his farm was connected to his physical computer and it was a costly mission to transfer the data to a new machine.
At that point I came into the story. Since I was still studying computer science at university, I programmed the first version of a SaaS-based farm management software for my father’s exclusive use. However, other farmers got wind of it and wanted to start using it too. Recognizing my own limitations, I engaged Stenver’s help who assisted me in developing a scalable product and that’s how eAgronom was born!
From our accidental beginnings, to when we raised €500k, to now receiving €7M of investment during our latest funding round, it’s been a whirlwind of a journey. Starting from the first customer, my father, we today have a network of 1,500 grain growers.
We have boundless ambitions, especially when it comes to doing our bit to fight climate change. As young entrepreneurs we feel we have a huge responsibility to work towards making the world a better place. While working within the agricultural sector, there is an immense potential for not just cleaning up the industry but turning it into something that actively helps the environment. That’s why our entire business model is focused on supporting farmers in moving to sustainable practices by providing them with access to knowledge, finance, and the right tools.
Our ambitious goal is to make fighting climate change the corporate world’s number one
business priority, toppling shareholder profits off the first spot. This might sound crazy, but humanity is slowly waking up to the fact that our survival on this planet is at stake and we need to start throwing everything at it to avoid catastrophe.
eAgronom’s farm management software is designed for grain growers to improve their record-keeping, organize their tasks and plans, and analyze progress to a granular level. It allows farmers to easily create and adjust crop rotation plans for up to five years, keep track of tasks, track weather, have real-time overview of the inventory, make notes, and analyze data, including comparing yields, fertility and profit. The handy mobile app allows farmers to manage everything on the field, even offline without internet coverage.
eAgronom is much more than a piece of software. We are here to help our farmers every step of the way with a human touch. Our team of agribusiness consultants combine the use of FMS data with business expertise to look at each business as a whole and focus on profit as well as yield, making each farm achieve the best possible results.
Our main partners and collaborators are farmers. We work for them, and we work with them. Our whole world centers around them and our business develops according to their needs. We set up Solid World DAO as we spotted a major gap that hindered the carbon market to run effectively and for farmers to take advantage of the opportunities it offers.
From a technological perspective, we have worked closely with scientists from the Estonian University of Life Sciences on developing a carbon sequestration model, while we collaborate with data science and machine learning company STACC in the development of our AI tools. The Estonian startup scene is thriving, and Tartu is full of smart brains. It’s great to be in the midst of it all.
Crop planning is hard. Farmers need to make sure they comply with regulation, logistics, the market situation, and paddock history. According to our research, it takes a 500ha farm an entire week to plan the crop for a single year, with bigger farms taking even longer. Some farmers have told us that crop planning sometimes takes a whole year because plans keep changing.
At the same time, over 90% of farmers we have spoken to plan only one year at the time, planning themselves into a corner by leaving fewer and fewer options open for the future.
eAgronom’s crop planner, on the other hand, can produce a 5-year plan that is agronomically sustainable, logistically optimized, and complies with all relevant legislation in minutes. It can even consider price and market fluctuations. That plan then gets reviewed and fine-tuned by one of our agribusiness consultants.
What makes eAgronom’s approach so special is that our service combines the power of the machine with human expertise and experience, tailored to the specific needs of the farm. A solid plan can be put in place in half a day and easily tweaked and adapted when situations change.
Agriculture is an industry ripe for disruption and the AgTech market is already accelerating as the world wakes up to the fact, we soon need to feed 10BN people with fewer available resources while fighting climate change. Technology will play an increasingly important role in all aspects of agriculture as the focus turns to cutting waste and emissions, increasing yield whilst preserving water, nature, and wildlife.
The reason why I am so passionate about improving farmers’ lives is that I was born into a family of small-scale farmers and know from firsthand experience how hard life on a farm is.
The global Agtech market is forecast to grow by nearly 20 percent annually, rising to USD 32.5BN by 2027. The reason investors are circling the scene is that the traditional societal, political and economic value systems are being challenged and AgTech is emerging as one of the most future-proof investments. In addition, the Russian war with Ukraine presents a very imminent threat to the global food supply chain, a crisis that is accelerating the need to urgently transform the agricultural sector.
From developments in indoor farming systems, smart sensors, soil testing, autonomous vehicles, alternative feed supplies, and soil sequestration to name but a few, our extremely traditional and low-tech industry is now a hotbed for innovation like no other.
At the same time, the carbon offset market is expected to explode by a magnitude of 100 within the next eight years as pressure builds on private sector organizations to slash their carbon emissions. In my mind, with the global investment community now zooming in on agriculture, the speed of change will be immense.
Absolutely, technology should not only be for the big farm conglomerates. Therefore, our work on the Solid World DAO is so important. By being able to offer pre-finance to farmers and onboard them onto a carbon project means they will be able to improve productivity and yield whilst opening an additional income stream.
The reason why I am so passionate about improving farmers’ lives is that I was born into a family of small-scale farmers and know from firsthand experience how hard life on a farm is.
Being part of a carbon offsetting programme has the potential to provide an extra income to farmers by assisting the process of soil sequestration. However, for farmers to become more sustainable requires a substantial upfront investment and access to finance as the process of carbon credit certification takes an average five years. This involves huge risks and uncertainty over future payout, making involvement in carbon projects unappealing in its current state.
This is the conundrum we are trying to solve. We recently launched the blockchain-based carbon protocol Solid World DAO , which focuses on selling pre-certified carbon credits that in turn help finance new carbon sequestration projects on farms.
CA-based A2Z Drone Delivery, LLC, has developed a patented tethered freefall drone delivery mechanism, the Rapid Delivery System (RDS1) used by DroneUp® for the project with Walmart and
US: Velodyne LiDAR today announced a significant cost reduction for its VLP-16 Puck, which will spur hope and excitement for the development of safe autonomous
© Geospatial Media and Communications. All Rights Reserved.