Houston-based the Stoller Group, a leader in nutrition, plant physiology, and biological nitrogen fixation, announced on May 6 that it has acquired a stake in Cromai, a Brazilian agri-tech startup that uses computational technology and algorithms to identify patterns in images collected in the field to offer diagnostics in agronomic decision-making.
“Corporate participation in Cromai is an important step to offer farmers digital services that help them manage their property in a more assertive way,” said Rodrigo Ferreira de Oliveira, Mercosur/Asia/Oceania Vice President of the Stoller Group. “This movement is in line with our goal to build innovative and sustainable solutions, alongside our customers and partners.”
The artificial intelligence developed by the two companies will be available to coffee producers in Brazil by 2022, with launches planned in 2023 for sugar cane, soybeans, corn, and cotton. The companies said their technology will allow farmers to make management decisions based on the physiological well-being and nutritional status of plants, the level of vegetation cover, plant stand, leaf temperature, and the identification of problems and weeds.
“We are very excited about this new stage at Cromai, as we will expand our performance in the field with the digitalization of agronomic management,” said Guilherme Barros Castro, co-founder and CEO of Cromai. “It is a promising moment, and a partnership of this size allows us to take this high-level technological innovation with transformative results to more farmers.”
Cromai said it will invest in increasing its team and in developing and improving its portfolio of products and technologies such as the software, applications, and sensors on which the artificial intelligence algorithms are based. The project will then be expanded on a global scale by the Stoller Group, which is currently present in 56 countries.