Aker Is Reimagining Crop Diagnostics for the Better

Mobile technology is more in use today than ever before. The technology is being utilized in every sector today in this age of the internet. Agriculture is one sector where data and diagnostics will definitely play a bigger role in the coming time. Big data is already being leveraged by farmers all over the globe to make better decisions and gain better yields. One of the leading company’s innovating in agriculture technology is Missouri-based Aker Technologies.

Founded in 2016, Aker is the premier partner for agriculture retailers and suppliers who are in need of data-driven field insights. The company’s ability to capture field knowledge above and below the canopy allows for the best input decisions to maximize plant health and yield. With Aker as a partner, profitability can be improved and yields can be increased by transforming how crops are monitored with accurate identification and prediction of pests and pathogens.

Farm Data Collection and Diagnostics

Farming has now become data-driven. As a farmer, you need to have proper diagnostics to get the best yields. The Aker Solution provides the innovative tools needed to take full advantage of the sophisticated field collection capabilities, using intuitive web and mobile apps, or a fully-managed and integrated API. With Aker’s industry-leading technology, a farmer can gain unparalleled field insight — from the soil line to leaf tips, and all points in between.

Aker’s TrueCause™ is at the forefront of farm data collection. The solution is imagined by farmers and brought to life by engineers. It sports three 8MP RGB cameras and an array of sensors that capture biotic and abiotic crop stressors under the crop canopy that include:

• Diseases
• Insects
• Nutrient deficiencies
• Weeds
• Environmental stress
• Operational deficiencies
• Temperature
• Humidity
• Pressure
• CO2

In addition to seamlessly importing field information from Climate and other FIMS systems, the company’s national network of drone pilots and agronomists gather and analyze field data throughout the growing season on demand anywhere. Once the flyover is done, Aker’s machine-learned technology takes over to sort the images. Thousands of field images are combed through in minutes. Aker’s technology automatically detects and classifies your specified stressors and phenotypic qualities. Then, using Aker’s industry-leading AI and proprietary models, these results are correlated with other environmental and input data to generate comprehensive field insights.

Once problem areas are identified, Aker diagnostic interface and platform helps the farmer:

• Visualize information and create reports
• Evaluate stress-specific, cost-effective, and sustainable treatment options
• Share results via desktop or mobile app

The company’s secure, cloud-based archiving capabilities enable current field findings to be informed by historic data and imagery. Through Aker’s solution farmers can:

• Compare year-over-year results
• Evaluate on-farm trial product performance
• Generate custom reports to train and increase the productivity of field staff
• Create online microsites to drive grower engagement
• Share insights via your in-house dashboards made possible with Aker’s secure API

Working with BASF

BASF is a leading company that creates chemistry for a sustainable future. But the company needed to manage a large-scale, on-farm trial, and wanted a trusted partner to execute the project—quickly. Their mission was to grow the fungicide market with the launch of the Revysol brand fungicides, while offering a better experience with more transparent data. “Trust is the most important part of BASF’s relationship with growers. Data is not the end goal, but it’s obviously important and we need to treat it with the respect that it deserves. Data is going to help all of us make better decisions. But the farmers have to know that the decisions that it’s going to help inform for us, is also going to be decisions the we need to help make better recommendations for them,” said Joshua Miller, BASF.

BASF’s project requirements included:

• Development of on-farm protocol and field logistics;
• Nationwide collection of crop health maps and compilation of yield data;
• The discovery of compelling stories to show effectiveness.

The outcome was that Aker conducted more than 1,200 on-farm trials across the US and used NDVI imagery to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of BASF’s Revysol® to that of competing brands.

The Visionary Leader

Orlando Saez , CEO and Co-Founder

He is a C-level executive who has led two successful startups to IPO exits. He has solid software product, B2B sales and operations experience. He pioneered Wi-Fi at Boingo Wireless. He is the founder and inventor of Aker's IP. He is from a tech, telecom and data analytics background.

He has a BS in Computer Engineering from UPR, MS Computer Science from IIT, and an MBA from Stuart School of Business.

“Aker is the premier partner for agriculture retailers and suppliers who are in need of data-driven field insights.”