Agricultural machinery manufacturer Amazone announces that, subject to official approval, the Brazilian fertiliser spreader specialist MP Agro will become part of the Amazone Group. This acquisition is a further step in the internationalisation and the growth of the Amazone Group in South America. The collaboration means that it is possible to combine the specialist strengths of both companies in order to be able to jointly set new standards in professional fertiliser application technology. “We will be relying on the MP Agro team by using both their expertise as well as their closeness to ..read more

Nexat, the German manufacturer of so-called wide-span implement carriers, is now collaborating with the Dutch company Evers Agro. This means that the implement carrier is available with a disc injector from Evers Agro. Dutch company Evers Agro has entered into a partnership with the German implement carrier manufacturer Nexat. Specifically, this collaboration means that Evers Agro has developed a fourteen-meter-wide disc injector that fits onto the Nexat vehicle. The German company Wienhoff supplies a 32-cubic-meter capacity slurry tank for the implement carrier. Wider and with edge discs E ..read more

Indian startup Niqo Robotics is on a mission to build reliable precision robots for sustainable agriculture. For the time being, the company is mainly focusing on the Indian market, where it is introducing AI-assisted spot spraying on a large scale. Until recently, spot spraying was unknown on the Indian continent. But Niqo Robotics is rapidly changing that. The company shipped its flagship spot sprayer technology Niqo RoboSpray across the regions of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. This season, Niqo Robotics has deployed 50 sprayers, that have covered over 90,000 acres this seas ..read more

Bayer has signed an agreement with UK-based company AlphaBio Control to secure an exclusive license for a new biological insecticide. The new product will be the first available for arable crops, including oilseed rape and cereals. Targeted for initial launch in 2028 pending further development and registration, this new insecticide was discovered by AlphaBio, with whom Bayer distributes Flipper®, a bioinsecticide-acaricide. The new bioinsecticide has potential for use against coleoptera insects like the cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB), a pest insect that can damage oilseed rape crops throu ..read more

Greeneye Technology, manufacturer of AI-enabled precision spraying technology that is proven to reduce herbicide use in farming by an average of 88%, announces the completion of a $20m funding round led by Israeli investment company Deep Insight. The round is supported by existing investors Syngenta Group Ventures, JVP, Orbia Ventures, and Eyal Waldman, the founder and former CEO of Mellanox (now part of Nvidia), as well as other notable new investors including Iron Nation and Amol Deshpande, the founder and former CEO of FBN. Also as part of today’s announcement, Greeneye welcomes Barak Be ..read more

xFarm Technologies, a tech company in the digitalisation of agriculture, continues its growth path in Europe and announces two operations in Spain and France – namely the integration of Greenfield Technologies and SpaceSense. Greenfield Technologies is a company based in Badajoz that specialises in soil characterisation to optimise the management of crops, making them more sustainable and resilient. SpaceSense is a pioneering company based in Paris that provides climate intelligence services. SpaceSense uses satellite data and artificial intelligence to help companies and organisations perf ..read more

Can drones and AI better combat the fungal pathogen botrytis? “Yes, we are making progress,” says Dutch participant and bulb grower Henk Verdegaal of the National Fieldlab for Precision Farming (NPPL). And “no, it certainly hasn’t been a matter of plug & play in recent years. Everyone wants to, but the reality is much more challenging than often thought.” NPPL participant Henk Verdegaal (51) grows 25 hectares of hyacinths in the Netherlands. He believes that pesticide use should be reduced to maintain sufficient societal support for the bulb sector. But he notes that it’s not so easy. H ..read more

By employing ultra-high-resolution drone imagery combined with AI, a new method has been developed for the early detection of Alternaria – a fungal pathogen (early blight) that can cause significant damage to potato crops by infecting the leaves, stems, and sometimes even the tubers. This breakthrough marks a significant advancement in precision agriculture, enabling growers to intervene more precisely and efficiently, resulting in healthier crops and a more sustainable agricultural practice. “With this technology, we can detect the disease before it is visible to the naked eye, which can s ..read more

Australian company Agtech By Design has developed a technology that targets and sprays weeds in tree crops and vines. The company says its WeedSelector offers a cost-effective solution compared to industry standards. South Australian startup Agtech By Design was co-founded in 2020 by Ben Pankhurst and Zane Sheffield. Zane grew up as a grower in Riverland, South Australia, on his family’s vineyard and farm. Over the past three years he worked on the WeedSelector. Agtech By Design expects it will be commercially available by the end of June. The startup set out to build a versatile targeted s ..read more

The end of the reproductive period, when flowers and fruits are produced, is a crucial moment in plants’ life cycles. However, the factors that control this process must be better understood. A research team led by the Research Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMCP), a joint center of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spanish National Research Council; CSIC) and the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), has found that a gene called FUL controls the duration of the reproductive phase in crops such as peas. This gene could be used as a biotechnologi ..read more