BPP/Agraria's Digital Ag Division to Improve on Algorithms for Deeper Analysis.

Richard (Centre) explaining the potential for drones in the Agriculture space.

KUALA LUMPUR, 16 MAY 2018. BPP/Agraria's Head of Digital Agriculture, Richard Ryan, said that they were working with a Canadian GIS team to improve the algorithms for drone use in the Agriculture sector. 

"Broadly you could say we've come some distance in the application of UAV's in the sector especially in Palm Oil - but there is so much we can improve on in terms of the analysis. A lot of the new technology and analysis we see today coming from the West focuses more on broadacre crops. Canopies like Palm Oil require refining the Neural Network engines to better identify signals specific to our region."

Richard an agronomist and former plantation manager with Sime Darby said that working closely with some of his agronomy peers across the region and integrating agronomy knowledge with computer science and GIS technology has been critical in identifying the weaknesses of the existing commercial applications and fully achieving the full potential that Digital Agriculture has to offer.

"At the moment we're also in discussions with an Indian robotics agency to develop robotic solutions that suit the rough terrain in Palm Oil to help with general surveillance, disease identification and we hope to eventually be able to leverage on the advances in swarm technology to alleviate some of the manpower shortage issues faced in the industry."