DATA and agriculture! Is there a match?
AVR supports the further growth within the Belgian potato sector, and by extension the rest of the world. In addition to high-performance and user-friendly machinery and high tech 3D systems, AVR is also investing in data collection via our machinery. The field is always our focal point. Our harvesters and planters collect technical and agronomic data in and around the field. This data is then visualized in a new online application, AVR Connect.
To help the modern farmer cope with the current challenges in agriculture, we have fully linked our latest potato harvester, the Puma 4.0, to the web. Via various sensors on the harvester, we can quickly and easily collect data from the field and visualize it in the online and individual user platform, AVR Connect.
Stronger together
To be able to give more added value to the farmer, AVR believes in strong partnerships. In Belgium, we work together with VITO Remote Sensing and the WatchITgrow platform. A valuable collaboration by which we can bring together various expertise.
VITO has many years of expertise in processing satellite, airborne and drone imagery for multiple agricultural applications. VITO extracts a wealth of objective and valuable information about the condition of the crops. At AVR we have our extensive knowledge within the potato industry. They look from the space to the fields, and we collect real life data from the fields. Combining those data sets is extremely valuable for our farmers. Thanks to the different data sets, we can provide faster, better and more personalized advice.
PersonAlized advice through AVR Connect and Watchitgrow
Recently Flanders encouraged farmers to create and manage fields in WatchITgrow, the collaboration platform that assists farmers to be able to monitor arable crops and vegetables quickly and efficiently. By joining forces between AVR and VITO Remote Sensing, we can provide data integration between the new AVR Connect platform and information platform WatchITgrow.
By connecting both platforms, AVR can, for example, use field definitions that WatchITgrow offers to visualize the data on the fields in AVR Connect. With permission from the farmer, users of the AVR Connect can easily exchange data about planting information and yields with WatchITgrow from next growing season on. Together with data that is already available in WatchITgrow about i.a. crop growth, weather and soil data, IoT data, the algorithms can be further refined so that we can generate more personal advice and continuously improve this. This advice offers farmers the opportunity to take specific, timely and well-founded decisions with the aim of improving their yield.
Working together to Strengthen our Belgian potato chain
Within Flanders, and more broadly, we really have to work together to meet the challenges. We just can't do it. The 100,000 hectares of potato crops in Belgium can no longer be expanded. So the production must increase sustainably, bot qualitatively and quantatively. With WatchITgrow, Belgapom and Boerenbond want to increase returns from 44 to 60 tonnes per hectare
Within AVR, we are extremely pleased to be able to continue to work together with Belgapom and Boerenbond on this objective and to be able to make a substantial contribution to the further digitization of potato cultivation.
