"How same processes are done differently"

HORTIBIZ DAILY: What's Agrolabs work field?

MICHAEL LAZARENKO: We are data company, producing solutions for greenhouse farmers to help them to avoid crop losses, increase yield and save time! Our products including the system for pollination and analytics where we are able to track bumblebee hive activity and automate hive opening and closing in order to provide optimal pollination performance for the grower. We also a system for irrigation analytics where we track water content, irrigation volume, drainage, ec ph temperature of the slot. Basically a very comprehensive picture what's happening with the plant roots that can help growers to precisely manage their irrigation strategies. 

HD: What are you displaying at Growtech 2021?

ML: We have both products here. We have a small bumblebee hive and our devices on the top of it. Devices basically counting how many bumblebees fly in and fly out. They can send the data directly to our cloud platform. On top of that, the devices are able to protect bumblebees from things like pesticide spray, artificial lighting by automatically opening and closing and taking out any manual labor involved in the pollination and analytics or opening and closing up the hives.

On the other hand, we have the system for irrigation tracking. It's an only measurement platform that tracks all parameters related to irrigation. We have 8 different data points that we collect from the ec/ph temperature in the slot, ec/ph drainage. Very precise information of how much water goes in and how much water drains. That platform sends the data every minute to AGROLABS cloud platform. We have all the data put together to help grower optimize their farming strategy.

HD: In which way is Agrolabs an international company?

ML: We're UK based company. We have offices in Hong Kong, Ukraine, Georgia and in Turkey now. We're soon to open an office in The U.S. as well. Our products are currently in use in 14 countries from Finland to Mexico, and US, UK. Basically all across we have quite wide presence in CIS countries and we're just launching our products in Turkey. Since the start of Growtech, a lot of positive feedbacks from growers. We think this technology can really help growers here to generate more yield, save energy and money that they invest in cultivation. We are really forward to our expansion here!

HD: What are your expectations from Growtech?

ML: Couple of things. It's obviously meeting local growers and potential partners for product distribution. But also it's about talking to people and understanding how the Turkish greenhouse market works. What are the challenges that farmers are facing and is there anything else we can do to help local greenhouse ecosystem to be more vibrant and to prosper.

HD: When you consider the next 5 years, what do you expect in the horticultural industry?

ML: I expect a lot of data-driven farming, a lot of automation. I think that's where it's moving! Unfortunately, still, the majority of greenhouse farms are not using these technologies. If you look in Turkey, 98% of farms are still using soil, no data is being collected. There are very minimal automation, none automation actually. I think in the next 5 years they'll change significantly. I believe that greenhouse farming is the future of farming as you're able to obtain a superior yield as opposed to outdoor farming, especially in fruit production. So, having said that, I think people will stop growing based in their hunches and the practices that their grandparents' taught and they'll start to use data. The data will become more accessible. The companies like ours, we are not just providing all these graphs, but actually just giving actionable insights. Like you should look at the mixture of your fertilizer or you should look into your pollination. The system will become more user-friendly. I really hope that will penetrate the low-tech greenhouse market in this period.

HD: Do you have a message for the readers of Hortibiz Daily News?

ML: I really advice anyone to go out like coming Turkey, explore. I travel a lot, I see a lot of different practices, different greenhouses. It's quite fascinating how same processes are done differently. That widens your horizons and help you to think more open way. I think that everyone should travel more -hopefully no covid. This way we can exchange our experiences and help everyone globally!

For more information:

www.agrolabs.io

Michael Lazarenko
CEO
michael@agrolabs.io

Source: HortiBiz