Florida’s citrus industry ended this year’s growing season with its lowest production in eight decades. As people and organizations searched for answers, an unlikely union has formed between two University of Florida startup companies to help reverse the trend. By combining expertise in precision agriculture with leading-edge aerospace technology Agriculture Intelligence and Satlantis, believe they can offer a powerful tool to help the state’s growers more closely monitor their trees and manage problems faster.
Florida’s Citrus Problems
The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a report last month that estimated Florida growers will fill 44.7 million boxes of oranges, grapefruit and specialty crops during the 2021-2022 season. This is down more than 22% from the previous season and the lowest since the 1939-1940 season.
Growers have a couple of guesses why the crops are having such a hard time. For one, the citrus greening disease that started attacking citrus in Florida 15 years ago. Hurricane Irma further decimated groves in 2017. Citrus canker and black spot disease have joined greening’s assault on the trees.
Scientists have helped growers fight declining productivity. On one front, they have developed disease-tolerant trees. Also, they are in the process of breeding disease-resistant trees to replace those lost. On another, they are creating new nutritional applications to help existing trees, but that is not enough. Industry leaders say they must also track the impact of these new remedies.
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“The war for improving productivity starts with understanding the real inventory,” said Matthew Donovan, CEO of precision agriculture company Agriculture Intelligence and resident client at UF Innovate | Accelerate at The Hub. “We need to know how many productive trees are there, and just as important, how many are missing. How can you run a business at all without having an accurate inventory?”
Enter the startups
An accurate inventory of citrus groves and other specialty crops around the entire state is what Agriculture Intelligence and fellow Hub resident client Satlantis hope to make possible by joining forces. The relationship could create the opportunity to monitor inventory more frequently, perhaps even monthly.
“Because Florida growers must contend with storms, freezes and acute events as well as the presence of disease, our goal is to shorten that time between data collections and analyses and, therefore, the decision loop for growers to take action to save their trees,” Donovan said.
Donovan and fellow UF startup Satlantis believe they can provide those vital sign for the entire state of Florida. Agriculture Intelligence harnesses a system called Agroview, the brainchild of UF/IFAS researcher Yiannis Ampatzidis, which captures inventory data using drones. The collaboration with Satlantis could drastically speed up that data collection using a satellite pointed at Earth.
“Our alliance will enable us to develop one of the most on-demand applications for Earth observation — precision agriculture — and we will do it in collaboration with a company that owns an impressive technology,” said Aitor Moríñigo, executive vice president of Satlantis LLC.
Satlantis is a space technology company offering satellites for Earth observation and universe exploration. If it were to point its cameras downward, it could fly over areas that Agroview has already mapped. It could repeat it every month if desired or after a major storm or freeze to capture changes.
“While drone technology can provide higher resolution than satellites, it lacks the scale that is required to cover large extensions of crops,” Moríñigo said. “The combination of drones and satellites covering these fields results in the optimum methodology, well ahead of the current state of the art.”
Applying AI
Both companies are deeply rooted in science, and their collaboration is a matter of exploration and innovation.
Using Agroview’s powerful artificial intelligence software, the companies could produce not just maps but data demonstrating the growth and health of the trees, including nutrient analysis that informs practical decisions to reduce per-field fertilization treatments, a crucial step in improving sustainability.
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“Without that information, the citrus industry is like a cardiologist trying to diagnose a patient without taking his pulse,” Donovan said. “The patient might arrive pale and sweaty. That could be indigestion, or he might be having a heart attack. The doctor must take the vital signs to know how to treat him.
Agriculture Intelligence’s Agroview is a science-first approach to data collection using high-resolution drone imagery, artificial intelligence and software to report the inventory and health. It monitors, analyzes and helps growers understand if their efforts are having the intended effect.
Satlantis designs and manufactures very high-resolution Earth observation payloads for small satellites. The company is unique in its market for its specific characteristics of agility, spectral resolution and VHR image quality. It recently launched one of its satellites from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
“Who would have imagined an astrophysicist and an agriculture leader working together to boost economic development for the state of Florida? But that is exactly what they are doing,” said John Byatt, associate director of UF Innovate | Tech Licensing.
