Despite working in the global tech world for years, specialising in smart cities and factories, the CEO and co-founder of Bitwise Agronomy, Fiona Turner, returned to her farming roots when she bought Jinglers Creek Vineyard in Tasmania, Australia.
Swapping board rooms for cellar doors took some adjustment when she realised the consultants she hired did not provide the information necessary to grow. Her need to better understand crops and her data-driven mindset led to the creation of Bitwise Agronomy.
“I knew it was possible to use some of the technology I had used in my past tech roles, like sensors, robotics and tech cameras, to solve some of these real-world problems I was facing on my vineyard,” said Turner, who, alongside co-founder Aran Elkington, spent over a year trialling everything from farming sensors and vine rover robots to drones to scare away birds.
With their hearts set on using AI, after a lot of data collection, the duo uploaded the neural net on LinkedIn in 2019. By June 2022, the Bitwise Agronomy GreenView system was used in 72 sites worldwide.
This is just the beginning for Bitwise Agronomy, which finds motivation in daily conversations with farmers to help them forecast, improve food security and positively impact global food production. Their mission is to transform farming with cutting-edge technology.
“The product we offer is called GreenView, which uses cutting-edge AI crop analysis technology that can see like humans, but more accurately, consistently and at a superhuman speed.”
Growers use simple off-the-shelf GoPro cameras attached to existing farm machinery and capture video footage when performing jobs like mulching, mowing or spraying. GreenView then takes this footage and crunches the numbers into interactive dashboards and maps to guide crop management decisions.
“Our primary customers are growers of various berries, table grapes and wine grapes. We have recently expanded the business to other fruits like baby cucumbers and have ambitions to target fruits like cherries and cherry tomatoes.”
GreenView’s blueberry neural network was trained on over a million images and has now counted well over five million blueberries globally.
By processing vast amounts of visual data captured by GreenView's computer vision technology, the neural nets learn to recognise patterns and make accurate predictions, helping blueberry farmers make informed decisions to maximise productivity, minimise waste, and ensure the highest quality berries are harvested.
Farmers have relied on experience, intuition, and manual labour for decades to manage their crops. However, there are always limitations to human capabilities and a significant expense to hiring skilled labour.
These challenges are only magnified by a growing population and increased pressure on food production. To meet food demands, growers and the wider grocery industry must embrace smart farming, as the industry's future lies in the convergence of technology, data, and expertise.
“One of the big problems we face as a berry farm is forecasting, which is at the heart of everything we do. Bitwise Agronomy has allowed us to take a great leap forward in the accuracy and reliability of our forecasting. We can collect more data in less time and eliminate some human error,” said Richard Winspear, Managing Director of Berried in Tasmania.
Another great feature of Bitwise GreenView is the mapping tool, which often picks up a lot of issues around pests, diseases or if there is any irrigation problem in certain blocks.
The company’s new application, GreenView Go, makes it easier to analyse on the go, working both online and offline, serving as a count and scouting tool that complements the entire GreenView system.
“When we talk to customers, we often hear two things - they want faster and more accurate counts in the field, and they want to understand their ripening curve to predict forecasting better.”
Farmers are at the forefront of food security, and technological advances like AI play a vital role by making a difference in production, efficiency, resilience and sustainability, supply chain management and levelling the playing field for farmers.
Tools such as GreenView that are easy to use can help plan for the whole season, manage variability and weather impacts, and predict yield, saving costs and time, thereby increasing profits.
Solutions like these that harness the power of AI and computer vision are revolutionising agriculture as we know it. This technology does not replace the farmer's knowledge but transforms it into a tool for precision crop management.
