June 20, 2019 (NEW YORK):  Global automation expert Autogrow has announced a collaboration with competitor Ridder Group and New York agriculture software firm NATIVE.

The collaboration is made possible with the launch of Autogrow’s new farm management platform, FarmRoadTM, which was announced by CEO Darryn Keiller at the Indoor AgTech Summit in New York today.

“FarmRoadTM was conceived to fulfil two broad purposes. A platform for autonomous farming and secondly as a way of bringing together all disparate technologies that farmers use into one unified management tool,” explains Mr. Keiller. 

“To be truly unified you need to be open and work collaboratively across the industry with buy-in from existing major players. It’s a concept we advocated two years ago when we came out with the first open API (Application Programming Interface) and I’m pleased to be in a position to say the dream is now tangible.”

“We are ecstatic that Ridder has shown the foresight and faith in us, to support what we are doing and join us in showing the industry what is possible when true collaboration occurs.” 

Both Autogrow and Ridder market automation solutions for Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and both will be able to integrate with FarmRoadTM.

“The Ridder Group, developer of the HortiMaX greenhouse control systems for over 40 years, supports the initiative of Autogrow,” says Joep van den Bosch, Chief Innovation Officer, Ridder Group.

“Ridder believes strongly in a connected future where systems and data is shared for the benefit of optimizing the plants growing conditions and more efficient and sustainable greenhouse operations.”

 “As an industry partner, Ridder will make it possible for growers to connect their Ridder climate control and irrigation systems to the FarmRoadTM platform.”

Alongside Ridder Group, Autogrow will also be collaborating with New York based Start-Up NATIVE.

“Equally as important as an established player showing vision, is new entrants to the industry who are also bringing innovation. What NATIVE are creating delivers a fundamental industry building block, which we will integrate with FarmRoadTM,” says Mr. Keiller.

The NATIVE platform connects farms with local buyers, maximizing the value of their harvests and helping both buyers and restaurants deliver on the promise and demand of locally sourced food. 

“Our partnership with Autogrow will most benefit the growers and the farmers,” says Frank Pica, co-founder, NATIVE. “FarmRoadTM users can provide NATIVE with real-time data that verifies the quantity and quality of their harvests, and NATIVE will return the true market value of the products. NATIVE then provides an outlet for growers to bring their products to premium markets within their region.”

Autogrow will work closely with Ridder Group and NATIVE over the coming months during the pilot phase. The beginning of the journey in working collaboratively with producers and growers.

“The next iterations of FarmRoadTM include flower and fruiting identification through Machine Vision and AI to provide pollination rates and flower to fruit conversion performance. We will be extending the 3rd party integration to include finance, labor management, food security and more,” says Mr. Keiller.

More information can be found on www.farmroad.io

QUERIES

General queries: (e) info@farmroad.io 
Media queries:  Kylie Horomia, Autogrow Head of Communications (e) Kylie.horomia@autogrow.com 
(w)  www.farmroad.io 

About Autogrow

Autogrow leverages the power of technology, data science and plant biology to provide indoor growers affordable, accessible and easy-to-use innovation – 24/7, anywhere in the world.

Our hardware, software and data solutions support growers and resellers in over 40 countries producing over 100 different crop types.

With over 25 years in business, we have a depth of experience and passionate, fun people creating original ideas and making them a reality for our growers.

About Ridder Group

Farmers and growers worldwide need to be able to adopt their own individual approach to efficient and sustainable controlled environment agriculture. This is the promise that Ridder, as an international family-owned company, fulfils by translating more than 65 years of Dutch agri-food expertise into adaptive technology and know-how that is tailored precisely to local needs and conditions.

At Ridder, the drive to innovate is in our DNA. We are also committed to finding the best possible solution. The balanced combination of these two characteristics has enabled Ridder to evolve into the experienced market leader in technical solutions for the horticulture, intensive livestock and crop storage sectors. Today, Ridder has customers in more than 100 countries, who receive support from international offices and a global partner network.

About NATIVE

NATIVE’s mission is to empower local growers by maximizing the value of their harvests and meet the rising demand for local, transparently sourced food. NATIVE integrates real-time technology throughout the agricultural supply chain to accelerate traceability, waste mitigation, and return on investment. For more information, please visit www.nativeag.io