A major Russian agricultural firm has used AI technology to boost harvesting productivity in sync with strategic land bank acquisitions.
One of the largest agricultural companies based in the Rostov region of Russia has shared its story of how it has leveraged agrotech to improve its crop yields and operational productivity.
Since 2020, Don Agro International Limited group of companies had been working closely with Russian-based autonomous driving software developer Cognitive Pilot to implement an AI-powered autonomous driving system for agricultural machinery.
Deployed on the group’s crop harvesters, the AI control system guides the mechanical harvester along the edge of unharvested crops with precision, maximizing the width of the harvester headers while optimizing the vehicles’ movements. This has reduced fuel consumption to make the harvesting process more environmentally-friendly.
The technology also allows harvester operators to focus solely on managing machinery parameters, making work less tedious and safer in general.
The group also employs ‘no-till’ farming technologies for up to 7.5 thousand hectares of its arable land bank. Compared to conventional farming methods that can erode soil quality and require more manual labor and fuel, ‘no-till’ farming reduces the impact farming has on the soil, providing an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative which has the potential to enhance crop yields as well.
More recently in Sep 2021, the group had announced its joint pilot project with Smart Polymorph Technologies to introduce the latest pharmaceutical solutions aimed at optimizing crop production for the agricultural sector.
As part of the pilot project, the group earmarked experimental plots as a test bed for the application of a new growth bio-simulator that is expected to raise the group’s crop yields and minimize production costs once it is ready to be deployed at scale. Commented the group’s Chief Executive Officer, Marat Devlet-Kildeyev: “Moving forward, we will continue to explore new acquisition prospects actively to raise our production capacity progressively, with the objective of achieving long-term sustainable growth.”
