Case study: Switch Maven (Papua New Guinea)

The Government of Papua New Guinea, with support from FAO and Switch Marven3 (Australia), piloted a key innovation in the Livestock Traceability System using Blockchain Technology in three sites within the Jiwaka province. The province is in the highland region of Papua New Guinea and is home to one of the largest pig populations in the country.

Due to the challenge of remoteness, the region largely did not have significant broadband coverage. To support the effective roll-out of the project, the Government of Papua New Guinea installed wireless broadband in three sites within the Jiwaka province with the aim of providing stable internet connections for the farmers in the region that would be taking part in the pilot project.

Value proposition summary

• Solution includes attaching radio-frequency identification to monitored pigs.
• The solution includes a mobile application to enable farmers to document the pig’s growth.
• Solution includes the use of a distributed ledger to effectively disseminate the data on the pigs at the sale.
• At the point of sale, the information regarding the pig’s growth history can be accessed easily by scanning the RFID tag in the pig’s ear.

Product offerings

General outreach

The system was developed by Switch Marven of Sydney, Australia. The solution used radio frequency identification (RFID)-enabled tags to mark the livestock, these were then linked to the database of a traceability system. As part of the traceability system, a mobile application (PNG pigs), was developed by the Australian company, Switch Marven, and used by the pig farmers during the registration of their pigs. The system continually uploaded performance data via smartphones, which were provided by the Jiwaka Provincial Government.4

Farmer support in the adoption process

This pilot was one of the earliest applications to integrate digital solutions in agricultural development following the development of an e-Agriculture strategy for Papua New Guinea, developed by the Government, with support from FAO and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The Government subsidised the solution, so no farmer had to pay for the service. In addition, the provisional Government in the Jiwaka province provided support staff to monitor and train the farmers during the piloting of the product. It should also be noted that there was a support team from Switch Marven, and the solution developers were in the province training the farmers on the system’s application during the adoption phase.

Livestock product traceability solution

Interested pig farmers registered with the system and ear-tagged their pigs with a special radio frequency identification device. Farmers input data into the system via a mobile application5 throughout the life of the pigs until the animals were ready for sale. When ready, potential buyers would visit the pig-selling points with their own mobile applications and scan the ear tags to access individual information about each animal by viewing its history before deciding whether or not to purchase.

Case study: CropX (New Zealand)

CropX6 is an Israeli agri-tech firm founded in 2015 that aims to provide farmers with reliable data from below the ground in addition to other data layers. Its do-it-yourself soil sensors can be installed by farmers in about 5 minutes, and it uses cloud-based software to create a comprehensive picture of the condition of a field – even the sections that are between the sensors.

The simplicity of the CropX solution means that it has quickly expanded around the globe and is serving customers even amid the disruptions and travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. There are different antennas for several crop types and various transmission protocols, including Bluetooth, 3G, 4G and even satellite transmission. The most important thing that the company managed to solve was the issue of data accuracy. The vast majority of soil sensors out there are inaccurate because they disturb the soil: When you put something in the ground, there is always a gap between the soil and the sensor, and after an irrigation event or a rain event, the water flows straight down the sensor to the bottom.

Value proposition summary

• Soil attribute detection using soil sensors that measure volumetric water content, temperature and electric conductivity.
• Ag-specific weather data services to obtain precise weather information relevant to the users and CropX’s algorithms.
• High-resolution aerial images from several sources, using NDVI, NDWI and MSI.
• Topography Maps in the placed terrain to assess the impact and movement of water resources.

Product offerings

General outreach

CropX developed the first, and still the only, do-it-yourself soil sensor. It can be installed by a farmer in about 5 minutes. It is inexpensive and effective in transmitting data out of the field into the cloud. Because they have hardware and software development and agronomy all under the same roof, they were able to come up with a multidisciplinary product. Thanks to that, they are able to spread out the sensors widely in the field, significantly reducing the cost per acre (on average, one sensor for every 25–30 acres). They are able to use fewer sensors due to positioning them in the right place in the field.

Commercial use and adoption

When a farmer downloads the app for installation, the Cropx infrastructure automatically performs soil analysis and is able to tell them where to put the sensors in real time. Cropx infrastructure is able to extrapolate data from and in between the sensors. This leverages machine learning technology using data among the various sensors. No matter where the farmer puts his sensor on the field, the Cropx infrastructure is able to tell how much water is at that point at an accuracy of 95 per cent, even in between sensors.

Saving water is an immediate result of Cropx use. Customers that use the Cropx infrastructure have reduced their farm water consumption by up to 50 per cent. Many commercial experiments are backed by third parties, so they are able to prove the Cropx infrastructure key performance indicators. CropX has also helped farmers save energy, turning a pivot around a circle once takes a day can save an estimated $500 in energy costs alone. CropX allows a farmer to realise that their crop has enough water and that they do not need to turn the pivot for further irrigation which enables them to save money. The Cropx infrastructure also facilitates compliance with the regulation in jurisdictions like the United States and Israel where water use quotas on farmlands exist.