LOS ANGELES, Aug. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AgTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global agricultural and food technology markets today announced that Israeli agri-tech startup Edete Precision Technologies for Agriculture, a pioneer in Precision Pollination as a Service (PPaaS) technology, has been selected as “AgTech Implementation of the Year” in the 5th annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program.
Edete’s keys to Precision Pollination as a Service (PPAS) are large-scale mechanized harvesting of flowers, extraction and long-term storage of quality checked pollen in their first-in-the-world pollen bank, followed by precise distribution of the best genetic fit pollen at the right moment. This is accomplished with Edete’s proprietary mechanized autonomous pollinators spraying directly onto blooming flowers.
Recently, Edete has helped leading growers in the U.S., had pollinated fourfold acreage then last year, implementing their pollination solution over 3000 acres of pistachios. This follows two years of repeat pollinations on an area of a few hundred acres each year. Despite California’s warm winter, which resulted in a low number of chill hours and caused extreme desynchronization of flowering of almost half a million acres of pistachios, Edete’s new generation 2Be® pollinator was able to achieve optimal pollination results.
The pollinator, developed quickly after complex physical analyses to examine airflows and pollen dispersion efficiency, was built based on the lessons from previous seasons. 2Be® allows pollination of mature orchards where the tree canopy closes the gaps between rows, and a tractor attached in a "three-point" hitch (the solution is not towed) allows for faster fieldwork and more accessible transportation between sites. Each 2Be® enabled Edete to cover over 200 acres a day.
Edete’s technology covers pollen collection (mechanically harvesting flowers, separating out the pollen, storing it for one to several years, and checking its viability), and machines that disperse the pollen, electrostatically charged, onto trees via a controllable dozer enabling the precise dispersal of the exact required amount of pollen per orchard. Equipped with sensors that measure humidity and wind velocity, the units can optimize the time and the amount of pollen being dispersed. The units operate day and night and under suboptimal weather conditions.
Edete is collecting inflorescence phenology data to further build the company's AI-based model for determining pollination times of different orchards spread over vast areas from ultra-high-altitude photography. The company currently supplies pistachio pollination services and will soon add more services, such as almonds, apples, cherries, pears, and avocados.
“Mother nature cannot feed the world. Not without some help. So, we set out to develop more precision pollination technology that increases the likelihood of pollen finding its target, rather than just blowing it around and hoping,” said Eylam Ran, co-founder and CEO of Edete. “At Edete, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a reliable and sustainable pollination solution and this award from AgTech Breakthrough is an exciting milestone on our journey as we continue to push the boundaries of agricultural innovation.”
The mission of the annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is to conduct the industry’s most comprehensive analysis and evaluation of agricultural and food technology categories, including Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) based agricultural technologies, farm management, indoor farming, food quality, data analytics and many more. This year's program attracted thousands of nominations from over 15 different countries throughout the world.
“The challenge for control over nature’s crucial pollination cycle is being methodically solved by Edete Precision Technologies. We depend on pollination for most of the foods we eat. However, bee populations are declining while climate change, commercial farming and excessive use of pesticides disrupt the natural pollination process,” said Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director, AgTech Breakthrough. “Edete’s pollination as a service is helping Mother Nature by applying pollen directly to trees in a highly targeted manner. By delivering a degree of precision that low-tech spray and pray approaches cannot, Edete’s work in California and beyond is worthy of our ‘AgTech Implementation of the Year’ award.”
About Edete Precision Technologies
Founded in 2016, Edete is operating pollination services from offices in Paso Robles, California with headquarters in Israel. For more information about Edete Precision Technologies for Agriculture and its precision pollination services, visit www.edetepta.com.
About AgTech Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in agricultural & food technologies, services, companies and products around the world. The AgTech Breakthrough Awards program provides a forum for public recognition around the achievements of AgTech companies and solutions in categories including farm management, indoor farming, IoT and robotics, FoodTech, analytics and more. For more information visit AgTechBreakthrough.com.
Tech Breakthrough LLC does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our recognition programs, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with award designations. Tech Breakthrough LLC recognition consists of the opinions of the Tech Breakthrough LLC organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Tech Breakthrough LLC disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this recognition program, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose
Contact:
Bryan Vaughn
AgTech Breakthrough Awards
Bryan@AgTechbreakthrough.com
949.529.4120
