A software platform helps farmers improve their agricultural management

A Tunisian startup is helping farmers improve the sustainability and profitability of their farms with software and robotics

Spotted: Although the world may yet meet the Paris climate goals and stave off the worst effects of global warming, one thing is still certain – we will be seeing increased water shortages and food supply challenges in the coming years. Combatting this will require innovative approaches to agriculture, especially in poorer regions of the world, where much agriculture is still practiced on small farms. Tunisian startup Ezzayra was founded specifically to help these small farms streamline and improve their agricultural management.

Ezzayra provides software solutions that allow farmers to get the most out of their fields. Its products include the AgriManager farm management platform which lets farmers plan, monitor, and analyse all activities on their farm from one place. Tasks such as tillage, planting, spraying, fertilization, irrigation, harvesting, stock management, asset management, sales, reporting, and HR can all be managed with a few clicks.

The company has also developed software and hardware to modernise and optimise irrigation and fertigation based on data gathered from the field; and ATLAS, a field robot able to perform the same tasks as a tractor. The robot will be autonomous and can be controlled via smartphone or tablet. Thanks to computer vision technology, the robot can detect plant diseases and perform harvest estimation.

We often envision sustainable farming as involving more organic methods and a focus on soil health and local ecosystems. But sustainable farming is increasingly involving technology. From autonomous drones that help monitor crops and spot issues to energy-efficient indoor farms – the future of sustainable farming may be as much high-tech as plant-tech.