Machine Learning to Boost Sustainable Farming Apps.

New Zealand cloud-based software developer providing irrigation advice to farmers plans to strengthen its capabilities using machine learning.

Regen uses on-farm sensors and other data to provide farmers with daily recommendations around nitrogen application and water and
effluent irrigation.

The company’s solutions, which can be accessed via smartphone, take the guess-work out of interpreting the large amounts of data farmers need to consider before making an irrigation decision.

It launched its first solution, Regen Effluent, in 2010 and has subsequently expanded into nitrogen application management and water irrigation scheduling. It was a finalist in the 2016 Innovation Awards.

Optimising the amount, and timing, of effluent and water irrigation, and nitrogen application, are key components of ensuring farm sustainability and resource consent compliance, minimising leaching, and optimising pasture growth.

Chief executive Bridgit Hawkins says Regen now plans to incorporate machine learning into the modelling, giving its solutions more powerful predictive capabilities.

Several years of data collected from sites around the country will enable the company to tap into valuable insights.

“By using the time series data we have across many sites and putting two different methods of measuring the same feature together – along with some of the known factors that influence the strengths and weaknesses of each method – we can develop a new, superior measure,” she says.

“Using that new measure we plan to strengthen the predictive component of our solutions.”

// Source - https://www.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz/sites/all/files/ai-whitepaper.pdf