A local entrepreneur has a created an application that looks to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of farm systems through the use of data analytics.

Zeneco Solutions, founded by Vanessa Teo, is an agrotechnology company that provides sustainable solutions at every farm stage, with a focus on three major agricultural chains, namely Agribusiness Agronomics and Agrometeorology.

As she shared, Agribusiness refers to a group of industries dealing with agricultural produce and services required in farming; Agronomics is a branch of economics that focuses on maximising crop yield while maintaining a good soil ecosystem; and Agro-meteorology, a study and use of weather and climate information to enhance or expand agricultural crops and/or to increase crop production.

Speaking in an interview yesterday at the iCentre, Vanessa shared that she was inspired to help improve the way farming is done, and to help make the lives of farmers easier.

Vanessa has a PhD in Agricultural Systems Modelling, and currently has a pending US Patent Filed on farm system optimisation.

She decided to start her own business, and went to Vancouver, Canada to take part in a three-month programming bootcamp to hone her skills.

As a result of the bootcamp, Vanessa created an app called FoodNotes, which went on to win the People's Choice Award at LighthouseLabs in Vancouver.

After returning from Vancouver just three weeks ago, she has already started up Zeneco Solutions and attained an office at the iCentre, and has managed garner a lot of high-level interest.

Her product, which is currently a web app, allows farmers to grow better by acting as a digital notebook that archives the daily farm activity done for quantitative future reference. Advanced features include a weather forecasting system and harvest tracking via data analytics
that are critical for the efficiency of farm management.

"Hence, the goal is to minimise the gap between traditional agriculture and information technology to achieve higher productivity and efficiency."

The product, she explained, is built around the needs of farmers, which she had already researched while undergoing her PhD, and is tailored to meet their requirements with a simple interface.

"What I'm trying to do with this is to increase efficiency of farms. At the end of the day what I'm looking to do is create sustainable farms," she said."So with all the technology that I am recommending, it will also go towards having a positive impact on society, economy and environmental health."

She highlighted that farming practices that involve applying large amounts of chemicals to get high yields but destroying water systems, for example, would not be recommended.

"It's more about creating a sustainable farm system for you, using data analytics."

Used correctly, she feels this data can help improve farmers' efficiency and the sustainability of their farms.
Her product utilises an algorithm that can provide farmers with information such as estimated yield, weather forecasting and so on. "I'm packaging it in a way that is simple to understand and at the same time allows farmers to go about their business."

"Throughout this whole process, I have a pending File Patent in the US for farm system optimisation, and I hope to incorporate that system into my app as well to make it further improved," she shared. "For the meantime, my first prototype is more of a digital farm logbook. For farmers, information is really important."

All the farmers - if you speak to them, and I've spoken with many of them over the past years - they are also educated and so knowledgeable about the farms that they handle, but it's all in their head. So it's something like I'm giving them an outlet to tell me what they did, and with what technique."

"They have all the answers in their head, but they don't usually jot it down," she said, explaining that her product provides a digital snapshot that the farmers can refer to. "It gives farmers a tool to make better decisions."

She shared that she is currently looking for more test farms. "Right now my app is focused on Laila rice specifically, but I want to expand it to other crops like maize, fruits and vegetables. So any testing farms would be good."

The profile of Vanessa's company, Zeneco Solutions, shares that that the company's objectives include to close the information gap between agriculture and sustainable development via agricultural data analytics as well as to create transparency and key information for critical decision-making processes from farm level through to government policies.

The company also aims to refine farm system data collection, processing and delivery at every stage of the farm process; to develop a private data loop system that integrates global weather and agronomic systems with local-field information; as well as to create sustainable and long-term revenue streams for local and global farms.

Source:
@BRUDIRECT.COM

by BruDirect.com

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