At the opening ceremony of Web Summit 2016, CEO of the event, Paddy Cosgrave, said there is “something special” about Lisbon. After sitting down with Nuno Grois, the agri developer of WiseCrop, that something special seems particularly apt when it comes to Agri Tech.

WiseCrop is an operating system that farmers can use to help them with the day-to-day running of the farm. According to Nuno, the main aim of the technology is to increase production while shortening labour time.

Using sensors, satellite imagery and data from farmers, the application provides information on soil fertility, plants and climate, among other things.

Storing the data, which it receives from the equipment placed around your farm, the application displays this information on a main dashboard, which appears on your tablet, computer or phone. This makes it easy for you to track the progress of your crops, fruit and even your workers.

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Unlike other applications, this technology is quite broad as it tracks a lot of data and brings it all together in one place. It also gives recommendations, eg it will tell you when the best time to harvest your crop is, based on how many days it has been planted or growing, the type of food that it is and data that the system holds from other farmers.

At the moment, there are 148 farmers using the technology in Portugal, which means this data is available for all users of the technology to buy. Nuno says: “Farmers can buy their data from each other to learn how they work their farms and make their techniques more progressive.”

The company is looking for investment to upscale and sell itself on the international market in the next year. To date, they have generated a lot of interest, particularly in Brazil, Angola and Spain.

Farmers can choose a system that works for them on their farm by picking whether they want to subscribe to the fertiliser, irrigation, plant health, or labour application online. Indeed, if they wish to choose all of the applications they will be brought together on the main dashboard app.

The equipment such as soil, plants, water sensors and light sensors can be bought separately. This, however, adds to the expense of the product.

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