In California, Marrone Bio Innovations, a provider of bio-based pest management and plant health products for agriculture, turf and ornamental and water treatment markets, joined a pilot project with AgShift, a Santa-Clara based agriculture technology startup, to assess the impact of the use of biological pesticides on the quality of fresh produce.
This pilot test is being implemented this year on strawberries in Watsonville, CA. It is the first time that farmers will be able to view a digital reflection of the growth of the strawberry crop. The project will more efficiently produce digital and visual records of crop input treatments—such as biopesticides—and the resulting correlations with the produce quality. The project will also analyze the impact of other external factors, such as weather, soil and irrigation patterns on produce quality. This will better help MBI access the efficiency and efficacy of their biopesticides.