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Satellites for agricultural risk and other sustainability challenges
CategoriesSustainable News

Satellites for agricultural risk and other sustainability challenges

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: This is a golden age of satellite technology – satellites are being used for everything from communication relays to weather forecasting, navigation, broadcasting, scientific research, and Earth observation. This last use is the focus of SatSure, a Bengaluru-based startup that combines satellite data and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to improve financial institutions’ understanding of the agriculture sector, among other applications.

The unpredictability of crop yields adds uncertainty to agriculture credit underwriting and monitoring, which in turn leads to high transaction fees and reduced access to credit for farmers – especially smallholder farmers. To solve this, SatSure has developed SatSure Sage, a platform and a suite of applications that provide accurate data to assist lending institutions in making and managing agricultural loans.

The data that underpins SatSure’s analytics comes from satellites. These provide detailed geographical and climate records and remote sensing information. This data is then analysed by SatSure’s AI and machine-learning algorithms and distilled into clear risk measurements for a variety of uses.

For instance, another of the company’s offerings, SatSure Skies, can be used for infrastructure planning to understand potential environmental risks or for renewable energy projects to identify optimal placements of solar installations. SatSure Sparta analyses crop health and yield, which can be used by financial institutions to identify farm-level risk or by businesses looking to optimise their supply chains.

SatSure is not the only company to use satellite-derived data to help financial institutions make more informed decisions. In the archive, Springwise has also recently spotted platforms that measure grass from space and monitor ecosystem restoration.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

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A climate-tech finance platform for the agricultural industry
CategoriesSustainable News

A climate-tech finance platform for the agricultural industry

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: According to the World Bank, agriculture currently generates 19–29 per cent of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a figure that is set to rise further as other sectors reduce their emissions. This makes agriculture a major part of the climate problem. Regenerative soil management practices could help reduce emissions, and help farms become more resilient, but many farmers cannot qualify for the loans needed to switch. But now, European fintech HeavyFinance aims to help them.

The startup connects farmers with investors, providing financing and loan schemes for farms and projects in the sustainable agriculture space. The company’s platform scores farmers’ borrowing capabilities, facilitates transactions, and administers each loan throughout its life. Around half of their portfolio is currently used to finance sustainable agriculture, with a focus on conservation tillage practices such as no-till farming.

No-till farming, which uses a direct drill to plant crops instead of heavy machinery, is a particularly important part of increasing the sustainability and resilience of agriculture. It lowers emissions by reducing the use of diesel-powered machinery, and leaves soils undisturbed, reducing erosion. As less nutrients leach out of the soils, they require less fertiliser and retain more carbon.

The company recently raised €3 million in a seed funding round led by VC firm Practica Capital. When announcing the funding, Laimonas Noreika, Founder of HeavyFinance, explained that, “Tackling climate change must be a united effort … Food growth plays a vital part in the climate battle as a prominent global issue, and connecting investors with farmers and agricultural specialists through our finance platform can help accelerate the adoption of regenerative soil management practices to reduce carbon emissions output throughout Europe.”

Recent sustainable financing innovations spotted by Sprinwise include neobanks that promote growth in new areas, and the provision of carbon insurance to encourage investment in carbon capture technology.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

Data optimises agricultural water use 
CategoriesSustainable News

Data optimises agricultural water use 

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: As climate change makes weather and water supplies more unpredictable, it is vital that farming develops ways to use resources more efficiently. Data is playing an increasing role in this, by giving farmers better information on which to base decisions. One startup taking the lead on this is AguroTech. Founded in 2020, the company focuses on providing data and insights to farmers to help them use resources – such as water – more efficiently.

AguroTech has developed a platform that uses sensors, satellite and drone imagery, weather stations, crop and soil models, and more to provide unique and actionable recommendations to help farmers enhance their farm’s performance. The hardware and software provide farmers with real-time, artificial-intelligence-powered (AI) insights that can help them to better manage water, fertiliser, and pesticide use. The company will also soon be able to help farmers earn credits based on the amount of carbon stored in the soil.

The company is taking part in “LIFE – The Future of Farming”, an EU-sponsored initiative promoting collaboration between agricultural groups, farms, colleges, scientists, and municipal governments across Europe on mitigating damages caused by climate change.

AguroTech recently raised €1.5 million in a series A funding round led by VC Navus Ventures and ROM InWest. With this extra funding, AguroTech plans to scale further and expand internationally.

Improving farming yields while using fewer resources is the goal of a number of innovations Springwise has recently spotted. And it is a vital part of the response to global warming. These innovations include everything from a unique approach to regenerating desert lands to spreading rocks on farmland to capture carbon.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

Pellets made from agricultural and wood waste replace fossil fuels
CategoriesSustainable News

Pellets made from agricultural and wood waste replace fossil fuels

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Each year, Costa Rica produces more than 1.2 million tonnes of wood, of which around 40 per cent ends up as waste. Much of this wood waste is disposed of improperly with decomposition releasing methane, a greenhouse gas that adds to global warming. Now, renewable energy company Pelletics is putting waste to work fighting climate change.

The company takes wood and agricultural waste from sawmills and cassava cultivation and turns it into pellets that constitute a high energy density fuel. Depending on its exact properties, the feedstock is put through one or a combination of processes such as drying, particle reduction, densification, cooling, and dust removal. This treatment takes places at the company’s plant in Muelle, San Carlos, which is situated at the heart of Costa Rica’s sawmill region.

The fuel produced by Pelletics is considered carbon neutral, and can be used as a direct replacement for fossil fuels in applications such as boilers, industrial burners, and home heating. In Costa Rica, fossil fuels are imported whereas the company’s pellets are produced locally, reducing transport emissions while supporting local jobs.

The company currently works with more than 30 sawmills, and the company recently updated its facilities with new technology to further improve its sustainability.

Pelletics is not the only company spotted by Springwise that is developing bio-based alternatives to fossil fuels. Other innovations include a Kenyan biofuel company that services informal retailers, anda researcher turning cardboard boxes into biofuel.

Written By: Matthew Hempstead

25th March 2022

Website: pelletics.com

Contact: pelletics.com/contacto

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