Blockbax enables growers and farmers to reduce waste and enhance productivity by digitizing
processes like water management, soil monitoring and yield monitoring that will allow them to be
more efficient, safe and sustainable.
The need for Smart Growing & Farming
Major developments related to the scarcity of natural resources, demographics, climate change
and food waste are pressuring Agriculture to meet the demands of the future. The World
Government Summit launched a report called
Agriculture 4.0 – the Future of Farming Technology in which they state that by 2050 we
will need to produce 70% more food. The Agriculture Industry will therefore become more
important than ever before in the next few decades.
To cope with the pressured demand, growers and farmers are turning to the Internet of Things for
more efficient production capabilities and operations. Connecting physical resources and assets
to the internet lays the foundation for remote monitoring of greenhouse or farm conditions,
optimizing the use of water, energy, fertilizers and pesticides and increased automation of
operations by adopting drones and robotics.
The ability to collect, visualize and analyze, but more importantly combine sensor and machine data
from a variety of sources is critical to Smart Agriculture. We’ve seen many companies that have
already made great process in rolling out sensors and smart meters but typically the collected data
is still siloed in separate systems with their own dashboards.
The Blockbax Platform can handle any sensor, network and protocol and provides easy-to-use
capabilities for configuring data analytics that will provide the insights needed for a data-driven
approach to decision making for agricultural experts. The platform is fully open so data and
insights can be easily shared with other systems or other companies within the supply chain.
“JUVA is a Dutch grid operator that uses the Blockbax Platform to quickly create insights into the performance and
status of our assets. The insights are used to increase the efficiency of a variety of maintenance and inspection
processes. Blockbax' No Code approach provides us with a self-service environment in which we create our own
dashboards and triggers. In doing so, we continuously transform our sensor data into new insights and more use
cases.”
Jeroen GronsveldTeamlead IT / OT
Remote monitoring of soil conditions
Monitoring the conditions and quality of the soil and combining this with weather data
allows agricultural companies to track trends and predict irrigation needs. By connecting
soil sensors to Blockbax, growers and farmers will save time as they don’t have to manually
check crop water levels anymore. The platform will proactively notify the user if there is
need for either irrigation or fertilizers.
Energy demand management
More and more agricultural companies have invested in sustainable energy sources like heat
pumps, solar panels or using geothermal energy. In order to optimize energy costs it is
critical to have a view on the energy use of every asset used in the production process.
Blockbax can easily combine all this data into a single view, allow for optimal alignment
between energy consumption and production.
Proactive asset monitoring and management
For agricultural companies that have multiple and dispersed locations it is crucial to have
a real-time view in the performance and status of all assets used in the agricultural
process. Blockbax can monitor data from assets like the irrigation system, climate system,
heat pump or a reverse osmosis system and will proactively notify the user of potential
issues with these assets allowing for a timely repair or inspection.
