Precision Ag Company Growing in Indiana
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAgtech startup IntelinAir Inc. says its AI-driven crop intelligence software is helping farmers drive yields and their bottom line. The precision agriculture company uses machine learning, computer vision and high-resolution imaging to deliver a view of every acre, from planting to harvest. Former Dow Agrosciences Chief Executive Officer Tim Hassinger is an IntelinAir board member and tells Inside Indiana Business, the company is moving its headquarters to Indianapolis.
“First off, it’s close to our customers. And as we all know, Indianapolis is really becoming a technology hub. And we believe the talent we need is available,” said Hassinger.
The precision agriculture business says its technology helps pinpoint potential problems with their crops.
“It takes imagery result data from different sources such as satellite, fixed wing airplane, or drone, and the resolution is all the way to 10 centimeters, or in essence, every four inches across the field,” explained Hassinger.
Hassinger says IntelinAirs’s software performs the analytics, evaluating the data against 52 different patterns. He says those patterns would indicate if there is an agronomic issue, whether it is weeds, pests, or nutrient deficiency. If a problem is discovered, the system sends an alert to the farmer.
The company says while Indiana and Illinois corn and soybean farmers make up the core market, Hassinger believes there is potential outside the Corn Belt.
“This is a growing field. This can go into broader geography on more crops and can go outside of the United States,” said Hassinger. But he says the biggest growth opportunity is more adoption of precision ag. “Roughly 25% of farmers use some type of imagery source. So, there’s really growth that can come from both directions here.”
Hassinger previously served as CEO of Dow Agrosciences, which later became Corteva Agriscience (NYSE: CTVA) as a result of the merger of Dow Chemical Company and DuPont.