Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Cultivating AI: AgTech Industry Taps NVIDIA GPUs to Protect the Planet

22/04/2021

What began as a budding academic movement into farm AI projects has now blossomed into a field of startups creating agriculture technology with a positive social impact for Earth.

Whether it's the threat to honey bees worldwide from varroa mites, devastation to citrus markets from citrus greening, or contamination of groundwater caused from agrochemicals - AI startups are enlisting NVIDIA GPUs to help solve these problems.

With Earth Day today, here's looking at some of the work of developers, researchers and entrepreneurs who are harnessing NVIDIA GPUs to protect the planet.

The Bee's Knees: Parasite Prevention Bees are under siege by varroa parasites destroying their colonies. And saving the world's honeybee population is about a lot more than just honey. All kinds of farmers now need to rent bees because of their scarcity to get their own crops pollinated.

Beewise, a startup based in Israel, has developed robo hives with computer vision for infestation identification and treatment capabilities. In December, TIME magazine named the Beewise Beehome to its Best Inventions of 2020 list. Others are using deep learning to understand hives better and look at improved hive designs.

Orange You Glad AI Helps If it weren't for AI, that glass of orange juice for breakfast might be a puckery one. A rampant citrus greening disease is decimating orchards and souring fruit worldwide. Thankfully, University of Florida researchers are developing computer vision for smart sprayers of agrochemicals, which are now being licensed and deployed in pilot tests by CCI, an agricultural equipment company.

The system can adjust in real time to turn off or on the application of crop protection products or fertilizers as well as adjust the amount sprayed based on the plant's size.

SeeTree, based in Israel, is tackling citrus greening, too. It offers a GPU-driven tree analytics platform of image recognition algorithms, sensors, drones and a data collection app.

The startup uses NVIDIA Jetson TX2 to process images and CUDA as the interface for cameras at orchards. The TX2 enables it to do fruit-detection for orchards as well as provide farms with a yield estimation tool.

AI Land of Sky Blue Water Bilberry, located in Paris, develops weed recognition powered by the NVIDIA Jetson edge AI platform for precision application of herbicides. The startup has helped customers reduce the usage of chemicals by as much as 92 percent.

FarmWise, based in San Francisco, offers farmers an AI-driven robotic machine for pulling weeds rather than spraying them, reducing groundwater contamination.

Also, John Deere-owned Blue River offers precision spraying of crops to reduce the usage of agrochemicals harmful to land and water.

And two students from India last year developed Nindamani, an AI-driven, weed-removal robot prototype that took top honors at the AI at the Edge Challenge on Hackster.io.

Milking AI for Dairy Farmers AI is going to the cows, too. Advanced Animal Diagnostics, based in Morrisville, North Carolina, offers a portable testing device to predict animal performance and detect infections in cattle before they take hold. Its tests are processed on NVIDIA GPUs in the cloud. The machine can help reduce usage of antibiotics.

Similarly, SomaDetect aims to improve milk production with AI. The Halifax, Nova Scotia, company runs deep learning models on NVIDIA GPUs to analyze milk images.

Photo courtesy of Mark Kelly on Unsplash
LINK: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/04/22/agtech-industry-taps-nvidia-g...
See more stories from nvidia

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

19/06/2026

Bitfocus Buttons wins another top industry award

Buttons is best control system in the rAVe Best of Infocomm Awards 2026...

19/06/2026

Mavis Studio Makes iPad Production More Powerful

Mavis Studio Makes iPad Production More Powerful Brie Clayton June 19, 2026 0 Comments InfoComm update brings new NDI Preview, PTZ control, USB audio ...

19/06/2026

Immersive Studio Metaverse Stage Tackles Post with Blackmagic Design

Immersive Studio Metaverse Stage Tackles Post with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton June 19, 2026 0 Comments New narrative projects rely on DaVinci Reso...

19/06/2026

How to Run the Original 1993 After Effects

How to Run the Original 1993 After Effects Graham Quince June 19, 2026 0 Comments How to the original After Effects v1 in an emulator, and you don'...

19/06/2026

IBC Show to Increase Focus on Networking, Startups

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/06/2026

Irdeto Taps Axel Gallant as CEO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

19/06/2026

SMPTE Makes Its Standards Freely Accessible - Opening St...

SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists and engineers, has announced that its entire Standards catalog is now freely available to the global medi...

19/06/2026

nsign and BrightSign partner to expand deployment options...

nsign, the digital signage SaaS platform built around its core principle of Simplify Complexity, has announced a partnership with BrightSign , expanding the dep...

19/06/2026

Visual Productions Unveils RdmRelay2 Four-channel Relay...

Visual Productions announces the availability of its new RdmRelay2 at InfoComm 2026 (ACT Entertainment, Booth N6813). A networked, four-channel DMX relay, it is...

19/06/2026

Adobe Unveils Major Expansion of Creative Agent Across Firefly and Creative Cloud Apps Including Photoshop and Premiere

Adobe Unveils Major Expansion of Creative Agent Across Firefly and Creative Clou...

19/06/2026

Immersive Studio Metaverse Stage Innovates Storytelling with URSA Cine Immersive

Immersive Studio Metaverse Stage Innovates Storytelling with URSA Cine Immersive Brie Clayton June 18, 2026 0 Comments Two new narrative short films c...

19/06/2026

June 18, 2026

Lab studies explain how new cancer drug works as it enters patient testing Immunologists at Scripps Research show how a new, experimental drug revives immune ce...

18/06/2026

Ratings Roundup: Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals Is Most Watched Since Jordan Bulls Era; FIFA World Cup Opens Big

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...

18/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: PTZOptics Debuts Healthcare Visual Reasoning Integration with LayerJot

PTZOptics has unveiled new Visual Reasoning demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 (Boo...

18/06/2026

IBC 2026: Announces New Future Tech Ignite Initiative, Expanded Exhibitor Participation

IBC2026 will take place at the RAI Amsterdam from September 11-14, bringing toge...

18/06/2026

InfoComm 2026 Holds Inaugural Media Day with Product Announcements from 19 Exhibitors

InfoComm 2026 held its first-ever Media Day on June 17, providing journalists an...

18/06/2026

Info Comm 2026: FOR-A America Announces TAA-Compliant LED Display Package

FOR-A America has announced a Trade Agreements Act (TAA)-compliant LED display solution combining Alfalite's Litepix LED displays and Brompton Technology...

18/06/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 20: Cleveland Browns Kyle Millen - Run of Shows & Rock n Roll

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level have one major thing in common: the intensity and attention to detail ramps up dur...

18/06/2026

International Federation of American Football, TMRW Sports Partner on Global Growth of Flag Football

The International Federation of American Football (IFAF) and TMRW Sports have an...

18/06/2026

AJA Debuts Io Xpand Thunderbolt 5 Expansion Chassis for KONA and Corvid PCIe I/O Cards

AJA Video Systems has unveiled Io Xpand, a Thunderbolt 5-enabled PCIe expansion ...

18/06/2026

ESPN Marks 30th Anniversary of WNBA's Inaugural Game With Liberty-Sparks Broadcast

ESPN has announced its coverage plans for the 30th anniversary of the WNBA's...

18/06/2026

FOX Sports' Big Noon Kickoff Heads to London for Union Jack Classic From Wembley Stadium

FOX Sports' Big Noon Kickoff will broadcast live from Wembley Stadium in Lon...

18/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: Show Opens With Microsoft Keynote, Media Day, and New Industry Initiatives

InfoComm 2026 opened on Wednesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center, bringing t...

18/06/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Akta's Matt Smith on Building AI Into the Foundation of the Video Workflow

As media companies look to deliver more live, VOD, and snackable sports content ...

18/06/2026

2026 Sundance Film Festival: Local Lens

Top L-R: Take Me Home, The Lake Bottom L-R: TheyDream, Union County Free Summer Screening Series Announced Screenings for the Local Utah Community at...

18/06/2026

iamReverb gets an update

Improvements & new IR content iamReverb Audio have just launched a free update that kits their convolution reverb plug-in out with some new features and int...

18/06/2026

Two notes unveil Genome 2.0

Modelling suite gains improved captures, iOS support & more Two notes Audio Engineering have just announced the launch of Genome 2.0, a significant update t...

18/06/2026

VSL update Vienna Ensemble Pro 8

New AI assistance feature, video overhaul & more VSL have just announced the launch of Vienna Ensemble Pro 8.1 and 8.1V, a pair of major updates to their ev...

18/06/2026

The Gauge: Poland | May 2026

The average daily TV screen time in May was 3 hours and 36 minutes, marking a clear decrease of 15 minutes compared to April. This trend proved to be much stron...

18/06/2026

Gracenote and PubMatic Bring Curated Live Sports and Content-Level Deals to Programmatic CTV

Integration embeds Gracenote content intelligence, including contextual segments...

18/06/2026

AJA Debuts Io Xpand Thunderbolt 5 Expansion Chassis for...

AJA Video Systems unveiled Io Xpand, a high-performance Thunderbolt 5-enabled PCIe expansion chassis for AJA KONA and Corvid video and audio I/O cards. As dema...

18/06/2026

Providius Announces Providius Direct for Faster AV-over-I...

New NVRT-driven workflow enables on-demand traffic mirroring and guided troubleshooting for AV teams, integrators, and support organizations ahead of InfoComm 2...

18/06/2026

Mavis Studio Brings New Muscle to Mobile Production on iP...

At InfoComm 2026, Mavis announced a major update to Mavis Studio, its live production app for the iPad, with new features designed to make professional AV produ...

18/06/2026

Harmonic Completes Divestiture of Video Business to Media...

Transaction Positions Harmonic as a Pure-Play Broadband Company Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in virtualized broadband solutions, today a...

18/06/2026

ACT Entertainment and NETGEAR Partner to Power the Futur...

ACT Entertainment and NETGEAR have announced a strategic partnership that establishes verified interoperability between NETGEAR Switches and key technologies fr...

18/06/2026

IBC2026 creates new pathways from innovation to real-worl...

IBC2026 is set to bring the global media, entertainment and technology community together at the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September, enabling industry players f...

18/06/2026

PLIANT TECHNOLOGIES DEBUTS CREWCOM FLEX THE WORLDS FIRST...

Pliant Technologies is proud to introduce CrewCom Flex , the world's first frameless matrix intercom system and the only complete matrix IP-based intercom s...

18/06/2026

XR Sports Alliance Strengthens its Capabilities with New...

The XR Sports Alliance (XRSA) has announced that a new cohort of members has joined the strategic initiative: ActionStreamer, Antigravity, Creative Artists Agen...

18/06/2026

Hollywood Filmmakers Launch AI Production Platform Cascade

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

ATVA Blasts Deltavision Media for Demanding 'Egregious' Retrans Fees

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

MediaKind Completes Merger with Harmonic's Video Business

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

AJA Unveils Io Xpand Thunderbolt 5 Expansion Chassis At InfoComm 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

Linda May Han Oh Receives Guggenheim Fellowship

Linda May Han Oh Receives Guggenheim Fellowship The Berklee professor, bassist, and composer will use the fellowship to debut Dreams of Knowing, an interdisci...

18/06/2026

How FERC's Large-Load Interconnection Actions Help Address Grid Stress, Improve Affordability

In a consequential grid infrastructure decision, the Federal Energy Regulatory C...

18/06/2026

Techtel delivers Haivision live streaming system for TAFE NSW St Leonards, enabling real-world broadcast training

Techtel delivers Haivision live streaming system for TAFE NSW St Leonards, enabl...

18/06/2026

The Great Roaming Rinse

New study reveals 10 hidden data drainers costing Brits hundreds abroad - and the holiday hotspots where you could get rinsed the mostThursday 18 June 2026 The...