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The 'Mark' - next-gen forestry and crop management device
Arable Labs Inc.’s advanced microclimate and crop growth monitoring device, the "Mark."
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In the Western United States, National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded researchers deployed a unique set of instruments, called the Internet of Trees, to monitor how forests respond to repeated droughts from the cellular level to ecosystem scale. The researchers refined the instrumentation during the study and, with funding from NSF’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and I-Corps programs, began rolling it out for commercial use. Arable Labs Inc's new technology, called the Mark, will help farmers and natural resource managers collect data on rainfall, microclimate and plant growth and will use these to make predictions of harvest timing, crop yield and perishability. Pilots are underway with large growers, including California-based Driscoll’s and Australian-based Treasury Wine Estates.
[Research supported by NSF/SBIR Phase I grant (IIP 1549035): "Advanced bioeconomic forecasting enabled by next-generation crop monitoring."] (Date image taken: June 2016; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: March 29, 2017)
Credit: Arable Labs Inc.
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