Syngenta Vegetable Seeds and Heritable Agriculture announced the signing of a collaboration to harness artificial intelligence (AI) technology to determine the best vegetable varieties to offer growers.
Leveraging historical data on geographical conditions and crop trialing, Heritable Agriculture will use AI-tools with Syngenta’s global product portfolio, with the goal of better predicting the best-performing commercial varieties in different regions to ensure growers have the best possible product offering from Syngenta.
Vegetable seed companies with hundreds or even thousands of varieties are often faced with the difficult job of identifying the best placement of varieties for growers in diverse markets, the companies told AgTechNavigator at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London, where the tie-up was announced.
Accelerating seed varieties
It’s not just about yield – growers need varieties that are best suited for their unique growing conditions and climate patterns, explained Heritable Agriculture’s CEO Brad Zamft, and Bensasson Victor, head of market intelligence and analytics at Syngenta Vegetables.
Traditionally, seed companies spend countless hours evaluating data, trialing different varieties and sourcing feedback from growers and the value chain, they explained. While these inputs are still important, technology now offers a way to accelerate these decisions.
Heritable was founded at Google X, Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory, and is focused on bringing the best of AI to agriculture. For Syngenta, the Heritable team is dissecting the interaction between genetics and environment, weather conditions, soil variables, and additional proprietary data. If successful, they will be able to predict scalable vegetable seed performance for a grower anywhere in the world, up to a 10-meter resolution.
“We are excited to work with Syngenta to help bring cutting-edge AI tools to help them place products more efficiently,” said Zamft, CEO of Heritable Agriculture. “This collaboration with their vegetable seeds team is a great example of the kinds of markets and applications that can be embraced when targeting the latest in AI towards all portions of the agricultural industry.”
