Gamaya: unveiling world’s first digital tool using satellite images to fight pests

Plant-parasitic nematodes are microscopic parasites living in the soil that feed on plant roots, opening pathways to further fungal infections and threatening plant health, crop quality and yield. These harmful nematodes account for as much as USD 150 billion in crop losses globally each year.

Today, Syngenta Crop Protection, a global leader in agricultural innovation, is launching the world’s first commercial digital solution to diagnose infestations of plant-parasitic nematodes in soybean crops by analysing photographs taken from satellites. This marks a breakthrough in the management of this devastating pest and is a product of Syngenta’s focus on delivering an expanding portfolio of digital and precision agriculture solutions to farmers worldwide.

The new digital tool uses a unique, proprietary algorithm to analyse images of fields obtained by satellites, allowing it to identify areas of high infestations of plant-parasitic nematodes in crops and estimate potential losses caused by these microscopic parasites. Using the tool, farmers can make quick adjustments to their field management practices, helping them avoid losses in yield and optimising the use of inputs, improving the sustainability of their farms.

A swiss startup innovation
The unveiled first-of-its-kind innovation is the culmination of a multi-year collaboration with EPFL spinoff Gamaya SA, a specialist in crop- and region-specific digital agronomy tools with focusing on sugarcane and soybean. Since its founding in 2015, the startup has been dedicated to addressing the need to increase the efficiency and sustainability of large industrial and small-holder farming by deploying the world’s most advanced solution for mapping and diagnostics of farmland based on remote sensing technologies.

The partnership brought together the startup’s highly-specialised expertise in algorithm development together with Syngenta’s agronomic and crop knowledge. The tool has been rigorously tested through extensive research and trials on 100’000 hectares of soybean fields. The test proved a high level of reliability and precision. Based on the agreement Syngenta will own this technology exclusively and will bring it to Soybean growers around the world starting from Brazil. Soybean is one of the most important crops in the world for its vital role in food production, and Brazil accounts for approximately 35 percent of global soybean production. In Brazil, plant-parasitic nematodes cause estimated losses in soybean production, amounting to more than USD 5.4 billion a year. So far, the threat from harmful nematodes has been largely invisible and insufficiently understood, and estimates say that Brazilian farmers lose as much as 30 percent of their yield in highly infested areas. The technology will become part of Syngenta's digital technology platform, CROPWISE^TM.

 (Press release/RAN)