San Francisco, California, USA
March 19, 2019
Concentric Ag Corporation, a developer of biological and plant nutrient inputs, has formed an alliance with AgroCares that will add real-time soil nutrient diagnostics to the services it currently provides to broadacre and specialty crop growers.
Starting in the fall of 2019, Concentric will offer its proprietary NutriScan™ soil analytical system, developed with AgroCares of the Netherlands, to give Western Canada growers a complete soil nutrient analysis and recommendation on their smartphones within 10 minutes.
Concentric has obtained the rights to distribute the AgroCares soil analysis technology and will market it as NutriScan in Western Canada. The next planned stage of product development and commercialization is the Great Plains region of the U.S.
"Soil analytics is an integral part of our long-term business plan," said Jarrett Chambers, executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Concentric. "We believe NutriScan's real-time diagnostic tool will further help Concentric's growers apply the correct nutrients to maximize the genetic potential of their crops."
To calibrate the sensor technology, Concentric worked with local agronomists, retailers and the AgroCares' technical staff to collect and analyze over 2,000 soil samples from across Western Canada. NutriScan combines sensor technology with AgroCares-developed algorithms and artificial intelligence elements to rapidly deliver customized reports to growers.
“This new distribution agreement ultimately benefits Western Canada’s growers,” said Rob Beens, managing director and chief commercial officer of AgroCares. “They’ll be among the first in North America to use our technology to reduce risk and increase crop yields."
ATP Nutrition, Concentric’s plant nutrient division, plans to unveil the NutriScan application at its research site during the Ag in Motion outdoor farm show in Saskatchewan, July 16-18. ATP will begin offering the technology to its collaborative retailers and agronomists in the fall of 2019. Under a simple subscription model, its customers will be able to use the tool on an unlimited, rather than per-sample, basis.
"Instead of waiting a week for lab results, our customers will have actionable data on their smartphones within minutes," said Chambers. "Only 20 percent of the arable fields in North America are soil-sampled and only half receive a complete soil analysis. NutriScan helps more growers adopt accurate precision management systems and also allows more fields to be sampled with no additional analytical cost. The end result is to build a prescriptive nutrient management program based off real-time, complete soil analysis."
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