A 2021 study found that if farmers did not use pesticides, they would lose 78% of fruit production, 54% of vegetable production, and 32% of cereal production. At the same time, the way pesticides are delivered is not ideal: the only way to ensure sufficient pesticide distribution is to spray too much. This is not good for farmers' pockets or the environment.
comes AgZ, a company born out of more than a decade of MIT engineering research, with a new solution that uses ai to ensure plants are sprayed enough, using real-time adjustments to optimize pesticide use. The company's CEO, Vishnu Jayaprakash, shared with TechCrunch that RealCoverage can detect droplets down to 150 microns and can offer real-time adjustments for spray parameters such as pressure, rate, boom height or speed. This allows for maximum application efficiency at speeds up to 12 mph, the company says.
The implications of this technology are enormous. AgZen claims its algorithms and optimizations can reduce chemical use by up to 50%, significantly reducing input costs for farmers while maintaining crop health and yield. AgZen has been testing its product for more than three years of field testing on various crops and tells TechCrunch that last year it conducted 12 successful pilots and trials in the US and Europe with some of the world's largest growers. .
The real winner in all of this may turn out to be public health and the environment. With studies indicating widespread contamination of agricultural streams, wells, and aquifers due to pesticide runoff, and global soil at high risk of pesticide contamination, agtech companies are scrambling to find solutions. By reducing foliar pesticide use by 30% to 50%, AgZen's technology could help mitigate these impacts, aligning with the critical need to improve spray efficiency highlighted in recent reports.
The company also suggests that RealCoverage may prove a valuable tool for farmers trying to protect themselves from regulators: the The EPA has been waving its saber over pesticide runoff for a while. By providing accurate data on the volume of pesticides reaching the target in real time, it can improve pesticide tracking, reduce environmental impact, and provide information to design new formulations and optimize agricultural operations globally.
AgZen is preparing to launch RealCoverage commercially later this year through a lease-to-own program, which helps put the system within farmers' financial reach. The company suggests that by reducing the amount of chemicals used, the system pays for itself in one season.
