Managing water with sensorless AI tech

This platform provides accurate irrigation recommendations without costly sensors

Spotted: With the planet heating up, water is in increasingly short supply in some regions, making agriculture increasingly difficult. According to the United Nations, global agriculture consumes nearly 70 per cent of the world’s annual water supply, with approximately 40 per cent lost to inefficiencies and poor management. Overall, it takes between 2000 and 5000 litres of water to produce daily food for each person on the planet.

More efficient use of water is vital to sustainable agriculture and French agri-tech startup Seabex is delivering on this. Seabex has developed an AI-powered platform that delivers precise, actionable irrigation recommendations via a system that is more cost-effective and scalable than traditional sensor-based methods.

The platform can be personalised to monitor the water balance of each cultivated plot, give irrigation recommendations, provide weather forecasts, and follow all irrigated plots in large crops for complete irrigation management.

Seabex claims that its technology has already achieved an average of 30 per cent savings in water usage, at the same time increasing crop yields by 20 per cent. The system helps farmers understand how much soil water is available for crops, controlling irrigation costs, and giving farmers more information on which to base irrigation management decisions.

The startup has recently closed its seed funding round, led by Water Unite Impact, an investment vehicle developed by non-profit organisation Water Unite. The funds will be used to grow Seabex’s team and further develop its technology. The company’s goal is to achieve up to 95 per cent accuracy compared to ground-truth measurements by traditional sensors.

Written By: Lisa Magloff