South Australian agtech company GoMicro has just released an AI (artificial intelligence) powered assessment app that empowers Australian farmers to determine the quality of their grains – using their smartphones.
South Australia's bumper crop last harvest created a problem. Fully loaded grain trucks formed long lines at receiving sites as they waited for thousands of grain samples to be assessed manually by exhausted grain inspectors, sometimes working over 12 hours during peak season.
GoMicro’s patent-pending AI technology is set to change all this, as GoMicro’s Assessor app under development can now assess 1000 lentils in about a minute.
Farmers can now use GoMicro’s Assessor app to assess the quality of grain on-farm before delivery, so that they can ensure that their grain meets receivable standards. If the grain is not to the desired standard, farmers would have the option to clean it or blend it on-farm before making that long road trip to receiving stations.
The company recently released a free beta app and has received positive reviews from farmers in South Australia. A spokesman for Peters Commodities has confirmed that accurate AI assessment "is good for domestic trade". Robert Luetolf, an experienced grain broker for Cogeser (Australia) agreed, saying, "a major issue for my clients is the fear of rejection at receival points”.
The uncertainty often makes the farmer take lower value bids. It is hoped that this simple, yet brilliant solution will help evaluate the risk of rejection without having to drive hundreds of kilometres with samples."
The CEO of GoMicro Dr Sivam Krish says, “Artificial Intelligence is now rapidly not only replacing but outperforming humans in numerous cognitive tasks. All AI projects initially meet with scepticism before it succeeds and gains widespread adoption.
“AI powered grain assessment is not going to be an exception. We are now at that turning point here.”
Several other companies, including Cropify, Indyn, and ZoomAgri are attempting to develop grain assessment technologies, indicating the growing interest in this field.
However, GoMicro's entry-level solution, designed to work with phones, provides a more accessible and affordable option to farmers. Dr Krish said its higher-speed assessment technology, now under development, will make high-accuracy grain assessment a breeze.
He said GoMicro’s key advantages derive from the patent-pending diffuser design that creates ideal imaging conditions for AI, making it possible to train AI applications with a much smaller set of images.
It can also assess grains on a plate with the individual grains touching each other – while competing assessment technologies need them to be arranged in a specific order requiring each grain to be separated from each other.
The company is confident that most major Australian crops will be assessable by the GoMicro App before the next harvest. PB AgriFood a Queensland-based company, is already using GoMicro AI assessment for assessing soy quality on delivery.
Beta tests are underway for corn assessment in Indonesia. Several receiving sites in Australia and Canada will soon be running trials for wheat and pulse assessment.
The grain industry currently manages divergent expectations from buyers and sellers through pre-established standards. Dr Krish said that not only do these standards differ from country to country their interpretations differ – giving rise to costly disputes.
Subjective manual assessment not only brings risk of inconsistency but is more expense than AI assessment which is faster, reliable and repeatable. Dr Krish said since AI never stops learning it will certainly end up being more accurate.
“Trusted, unbiased and objective evaluation will reduce risks for both grain producers and buyers and make the entire grain industry much more efficient. AI assessment will bring new levels of traceability and transparency to the industry.
“Those who adopt AI assessment will ride the wave of the quality-assured digital grain trade that will connect farmers and buyers globally – in new and more efficient ways.”
DrKrish says AI assessment will soon make “grain into a digital tradable asset”. Because all its vital statistics will be captured digitally and indisputably – leaving no room for quality associated risks, matching what buyers want – with a new level of sophistication.
GoMicro is an Adelaide/Singapore-based company that develops AI technologies for agriculture. The company is incubated at the New Venture Institute @ Flinders University Tonsley SA.
