Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 01 | Page 10

NEWS How this Italian-based agritech start- up is using IoT to help farmers T he demand for food around the world is rising. By 2050, calorific demand will increase by 70% and the demand for crops for human consumption and animal feed will increase by at least 100%. Food and agribusiness, a $5 trillion global industry, will only get bigger. With an intent to make a difference using Internet of Things (IoT) in the food market, the company Evja was set up. Evja is a platform that helps farmers make better decisions using a system based on sensors and predictive algorithms. The company’s product hit the market last year, starting in Italy and already 10 INTELLIGENTCIO moving forward with partners and customers worldwide. Paolo Iasevoli, CSO Senior Account Manager, said: “We really wanted to use our IoT know-how to do something cool in the agricultural market. Agriculture is a key area globally, due to issues such as overpopulation, pollution and deforestation. We thought it would be great if farmers could really understand what was happening on their fields.” Evja’s founders created OPI as a decision support system (DSS) designed for the agribusiness; a network of sensors collects all significant data from the field and sends them to a central system. All the data is crossed with weather reports and processed through predictive models for pruning, pathogens and irrigation. The final information is accessible on one’s browser, smartphone, or tablet. With OPI, the firm claims that farmers can save money, time and water, and lower the usage of pesticides for healthier produce. Talking about the objective behind the startup, Paulo said, “We wanted to help advanced, modern farms with high agronomical know-how to further improve their performances, by helping them save time and money and more importantly, obtain a healthier produce.” www.intelligentcio.com