Software Development for the Food-Growing Industry

17:45 23 September 2019

As of 2019, approximately 820 million people go hungry around the world, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. That’s around one in nine people across the globe — and this number has been steadily climbing since 2015. There’s no doubt that world hunger is a huge concern, and as the land available for farming and producing crops decreases due to factors such as pollution, food shortage could quickly become a crisis as well.

What can be done to combat this looming problem? One potential solution comes from software development companies. Together with other industries and organizations, including environmental and hardware engineers, they are developing methods of “creating” more food such as hydroponics and vertical farming systems — producing food through artificial methods that monitor and power elements crucial to food growth like light and nutrients. These and other practices and tools are changing the face of food growing across the world.

6 software development companies that are transforming the food-growing industry

How are software development services radically transforming the food-growing industry? These six innovations demonstrate the power of technology in fighting and addressing global problems like hunger and food-shortage crisis.

1. Artemis

Formerly called Agrilyst, Artemis is a cultivation management platform for improving productivity in indoor-growing operations. The software enables users to view, track, and monitor their growing facilities remotely via an app. They will also receive data about their crops and production to help them improve the process. This is one example of software development companies seeking to use food-growing and cultivation platforms to increase profitability.

2. Bowery

Software development companies are also working on large-scale solutions to food shortages. One example is Bowery, a farming organization that created BoweryOS, a system that controls food growing entirely indoors using software, vision sensors, machine learning, and automation to produce an environment that encourages plants to grow.

Monitoring and providing the right amount of light, water, and nutrients, the system collects data that can also help growers improve the flavors and textures of their crops by harvesting them at optimal times.

3. Farm Production Manager

This cloud-based farm management software helps farmers track and plan their crop schedules, calculate expenditures and sales, manage orders, budget, and easily analyze their data. Users can view their information and customizable reports on multiple devices. The purpose of the platform is to streamline the production and processes associated with crop growing and selling and increase efficiency.

4. Lokal

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and other tools allow plants to grow significantly faster in Lokal, a Hydroponic system that does not use soil but grows in a water- and nutrient-based solution. The Space10 innovation lab at the Swedish furniture company IKEA developed the idea with the intent of adding sensors to the crop-growing trays, enabling users to monitor their plants via mobile apps.

5. Niwa

Niwa is an automated smart growing system that people can manage directly from their mobile phones. Software development providers created the system to deliver food and water to plants as needed and control the climate and light cycles. Niwa stores data such as the number of plants, and enables users to monitor their plants remotely.

6. Tanibox OÜ

Asep Bagja Priandana created a sophisticated-technology greenhouse in Indonesia, which includes a hydroponic system, UV lighting, sensors, monitors, and other software and equipment to make the growing process automated and “smart.” He also developed an app to check in on his plants from anywhere.

This system inspired Priandana and his wife, Retno Ika Safitri, to establish Tanibox OÜ as an agricultural technology business, producing software to help people grow and manage their crops sustainably and efficiently around the world.

Food-growing companies are increasingly turning to the outsourcing of software development to create new technologically-advanced models for addressing food shortages, producing more crops, increasing quality, and streamlining their processes.

Around the world, software development companies are partnering with farmers, organizations, and others to develop sustainable, scalable, and efficient models for growing food. These solutions save time, increase the abundance of food available, cut costs, and ultimately change the way people produce food and eat.