SANTA CLARA >> AgShift, an agriculture technology company based here announced that it will move from private to public beta for its mobile-based Farm Data Intelligence Platform. The AgShift platform has been in private beta testing since May 2016, receiving positive reviews from local growers in Yolo, Marin and Sonoma counties.
Miku Jha, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AgShift, says, “We are very excited about the response from our local growers, especially as it relates to the ease of using mobile-based solutions. We are committed to bettering the lives of our growers and communities. This commitment is what drives us in designing our software products. When it comes to current software solutions for small to midsize farms, we recognized a lack of understanding of the growers and their daily challenges. We have set out to change that. AgShift platform enables growers to make crop investment and operational decisions based on insights rather than instincts.”
A key feature AgShift offers for free to growers is its Profit Maximizer. It is a farm profit management application that is the brain child of Dr. Thomas George, AgShift’s Cofounder and Chief Agronomy Officer. Thomas developed this feature based on his extensive experience working with growers and understanding their problems and needs for over 20 years. Thomas says, “Growers know that growing a better crop doesn’t necessarily result in a better profit. And, farm profit management becomes extremely complex when several successive and overlapping crops are grown on the farm during the year. We designed Profit Maximizer especially for small to midsize farms to maximize the return on investment (ROI) for the whole farm. Growers can generate what-if scenarios to see what crops and investments make sense for their unique situations and needs. The goal is to maximize the return on every dollar that the grower invests by continuously gathering and analyzing farm and external Big Data. The grower will always know ahead how each decision impacts the farm’s ROI.”
Miku revealed that the company is currently in conversations with several sensor vendors and IoT platform companies. She says, “Internet of Things is an important component of AgShift’s overall strategy. We are looking at sensors and things which can automate multiple aspects of farm data collection. We recognize that the IoT applications for small to midsize diversified farms are different than for large farms. We are working on multiple IoT-enabled business applications which can bring operational efficiencies to diversified farms.” She also emphasizes that privacy and security of farm data are top priorities for the company.
AgShift anticipates discussing partnerships and strategic alliances with several organizations and initiatives which work with growers, especially beginning growers of diversified farms, such as UC Cooperative Extension and Farmers Veteran Coalition to show them the value of using real-time data for improving investment choices, agronomy practices, market choices and food safety compliance on the farm or orchard for maximum profits.
The company plans to connect with finance providers, agronomy advisors, extension services and research institutes that are looking to incorporate tools and technology to help digitize their grower base or are in need of better operational data for improved insights, benchmarks and policy decisions.
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