Danish agtech startup PerPlant has agreed with tractor maker Valtra, an AGCO brand, to offer its artificial intelligence crop sensor as a factory-fitted option on new tractors. Sales start this month with Valtra's sixth-generation T Series in selected European markets. The factory-fit models cover the A105, A115, G, N, T, Q and S Series.
The hardware is one roof-mounted unit with two cameras. As the tractor crosses a field, it scans the crop and turns what it sees into maps and, with compatible equipment, into real or near real-time actions: spraying only the weeds a camera detects, or varying how much fertiliser, fungicide or growth regulator goes on different parts of a field. It works day or night with ISOBUS-compatible sprayers, spreaders and seeders and with AGCO's PTx tools.
Over a season the sensors also track biomass, weed pressure and risk zones and upload the data to farm management software, so growers can review trends rather than react field visit by field visit.
PerPlant was founded in Copenhagen in 2022 by chief executive Rasmus Emil Hansen and cofounder Sumod Nandanwar, first as a cheaper retrofit kit for sprayers farmers already owned. Hansen said farmers have generally preferred systems that bolt on to existing equipment, and called the Valtra deal a milestone. Spot spraying has mostly grown through small retrofit specialists, so a factory option from an established tractor brand marks a shift for the category.
PerPlant reports that users have cut inputs by 40 to 87 percent depending on the implement, at about 4 euros per hectare on a 200-hectare farm. Those are the company's own figures, not an independent trial's. It says its sensors have mapped more than 250,000 hectares in 12 countries, and that it has closed a 1 million euro funding round with a 5 million euro round in progress.
Photo: werktuigendagen / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: Global Agriculture
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