GLOBAL crop-monitoring platform Taranis is expanding into the Australian market through a partnership with distributor Landmark Australia and agrichemical company ADAMA Australia.

Agtech start-up Taranis is headquartered in Tel Aviv and its founders include CEO Ofir Schlam (second from right). Photo: Taranis

Based in Israel, Taranis provides a precision-agriculture intelligence platform that uses data science and images from high-speed UAVs and manned aircraft to monitor crops.

“By working with local partners in Australia, we will be able to further develop our database of large commodity crops, identifying more varieties of plant disease, weeds, insects, and more,” chief executive officer and co-founder of Taranis, Ofir Schlam, said.

“With this collaboration, we look forward to providing farmers with better management practices and preventative insights, helping them to make the right decisions at the right time to achieve higher yields,” Mr Schlam said.

The Taranis platform already monitors more than 8 million hectares of farmland in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Ukraine and the United States to help farmers predict and prevent threats down to a granular level, such as identifying a type of insect on a leaf.

It is used to monitor crops at seed emergence, and for yield estimation, harvest priority and automated scouting, as well as looking for weed outbreaks, insect damage and nutrition deficiencies.

Taranis already has 30 clients in Australia, and has recognised the Australian market as being “ripe for precision-agriculture disruption”.

“We believe that the company’s technology represents the future of farming and, combined with ADAMA’s crop-protection portfolio, the reach and applications of our capabilities are endless.”

Landmark Australia national digital strategy manager Sam Bald said the partnership with Taranis and ADAMA Australia would help the company deliver sustainability and profitability to its grower clients.

“Together with Taranis, we’ll be able to deliver enhanced solutions and greater value to help Australian growers increase their food production and stand out in an increasingly competitive global market,” Mr Bald said.

Taranis targets high-volume commodity crops, such as corn, cotton, and sugarcane, which account for 70 per cent of global crop volumes.

Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd, together with Chinese company Hubei Sanonda Ltd, is known as ADAMA, and sells herbicides, insecticides and disease-controlling chemicals in more than 100 countries.

Landmark is one of Australia’s largest agricultural resellers, and is owned by Canadian-based fertiliser company Nutrien.

Source: Taranis