A simple photograph can now be used to determine most of the key characteristics associated with grain quality.
This is provided the smartphone in question features a new app driven by a range of artificial intelligence (AI) based technologies.
The company driving this new approach to grain quality assessment is the French tech business: Inarix.
At this point, the company claims that the app can deliver 100% varietal purity for barley samples. The same approach can be taken where soft wheat is concerned
Assessing the protein content of grains is also feasible, as is the determination of what percentage of a grain sample is constituted by broken seeds.
The Inarix platform uses AI to conduct the crop analysis, which uses a multicriteria measurement solution, replacing time-consuming action from several machines with just one fast smartphone.
The technology is already in strong demand within the French malting and brewing sectors.
The company is hoping to expand market availability for the new app into the UK and Irish markets in the near future.
An Inarix spokesperson commented: “The new app will be of particular relevance to those working in the seed sector, where the guarantee of varietal purity is very important.
“The same principle holds for farmers who are contracted to supply grains of a specific variety only.”
Looking ahead, the plan is to develop the technology to be able to diagnose and provide data on other crops, such as maize, soybeans, and coffee. This will coincide with US expansion, where corn and soybeans are the main crops.
According to the Inarix spokesperson, traditional crop assessment methods can result in significant waste when farmers are unable to accurately assess the quality of their grains. This leads to difficulties in pricing them.
The Inarix app offers a solution to this problem by allowing farmers to take a photo of their grains and analyze their quality based on various criteria, providing a detailed evaluation of individual grain properties.
This approach can allow farmers to more accurately price their grains, improving their overall profitability. Uptake of the Inarix app within the French malting barley sector has been significant up to this point.
The company is confident of this trend being repeated in Ireland, where major investment within the brewing and malting sectors is ongoing.
Inarix was launched in 2018 as a French technology start up on the back of €3.1 million funding, secured from a private sector investment group.
