Farmers save 59% of herbicides through computer vision
Target Audience
Farmers
Challenge
Traditional broadcast spraying wastes enormous quantities of herbicides—farmers spend $25 billion annually on 3 billion pounds of herbicides, with research indicating as little as 1% of pesticides applied via broadcast actually reach the target pest. This leads to environmental pollution, herbicide resistance (250+ resistant weed species), and unnecessary costs.
Solution Approach
The system uses boom-mounted cameras that scan over 2,100 square feet of crop area per second. Images are processed with an AI, trained on over 1 million images. The AI distinguishes crops from weeds using technology similar to facial recognition, then precision nozzles spray only where weeds are detected.
Value Add
Their solutions saved farmers an estimated 8 million gallons of herbicide and delivered an average herbicide savings of 59%, as of 2024.
References
John Deere, Blue River Technology
Read more here: https://emerj.com/artificial-intelligence-at-john-deere/
Image credentials: Dan Meyers/ Unsplash
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