From the coastlines of Africa to the tropics of Asia, there resides one common agricultural enemy: pests. They claim lots of crops because most local farmers have little or no access to professional help. Even when the government tries to step in, the region’s professionals and resources are not enough to prevent pest invasions and plant diseases from spreading. Plantix was founded to intervene in this worldwide problem.
A Free App for A Costly Problem
According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), ‘20 to 40 percent of global crop production is lost to pests. Each year, plant diseases cost the global economy around $220 billion, and invasive insects around US $70 billion.‘
To save cost and preserve crops, PEAT has come up with a brilliant solution called Plantix. The team designed the Plantix app to recognise the most likely pest, nutritional deficiency, or disease by scanning the picture of the affected leaves, fruits, branches, or stems. The AI-controlled app has access to thousands of plant conditions and matches the photograph provided by the farmer with the most probable condition.
Besides detecting the situation, the free app educates the farmers on the possible causes and the best solutions available in that region. This would help farmers avoid rogue pesticides suppliers, who recommend short-term solutions, so the farmers would be dependent on them.
In addition, the app has a community of local farmers and plant professionals. All parties can exchange data on crop issues in no time.
Who Founded Plantix?
In 2015, Simone Strey (present CEO), Robert Strey, Charlotte Schumann, Pierre Munzel, Alexander Kennepohl, Korbinian Hartberger, and Bianca Kummer founded PEAT, the company responsible for developing Plantix.
According to Simone Strey, CEO of PEAT; ‘We are helping farmers in India with our app Plantix by detecting plant diseases from images. With our data we can also see where diseases are spreading and warn the users in certain areas.‘
What’s Next for Plantix?
The company aims at improving the AI-driven app by investing more in research and encouraging more farmers to use it. The more farmers use this free app, the more knowledgeable and experienced the Plantix algorithm becomes.