Use case: Integration of Quantified sensors at Bejo Zaden
Bejo Zaden is a prominent international vegetable breeding company specializing in the development and distribution of high-quality vegetable seeds. Sensor technology plays an important role in production, research, and development. Bejo has been working with the sensors from Quantified Sensor Technology for the past two years.
"These days, you can buy sensors from many places," begins Youri Draaijer, Bejo's Global Seed Production Research Manager. "That often includes a package with advice, subscriptions, and software. However, that's exactly what we didn't want." It is one of the reasons why Bejo turned to Quantified which positions itself as a hardware manufacturer specializing in the development and manufacturing of sensor solutions. These solutions cater to a growing array of parameters relevant to growers.
Wireless and flexible data acquisition in the field
Quantified sensors measure a broad spectrum of parameters, including temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, soil moisture, and electrical conductivity (EC). The FireFly, the organically designed platform sensor can connect to various external sensors, enabling a variety of smart agri- and horticulture applications, while making use of wireless flexibility. These systems are extremely easy to set up, and they easily scale with the operations of the user.
In addition to Quantified's sensors, Bejo also uses sensors from other manufacturers. "One of the great things about Quantified is they can add any kind of sensor to their system," Youri says. After initial tests in The Netherlands, Bejo deploys these sensors in the United States, Australia, and other European locations.
Quantified FireFly wireless sensor node
Data portability and integration
An easy interface that allows the convenient export of data into various proprietary analysis systems was essential to Bejo. "If we only wanted to see live data from the sensors, logging into Quantified's system would be sufficient. But we want to do more; we make optimal use of the data by linking it with the data that is available from other sources " Youri continues.
Robbert-Jan Seeleman, Global Seed Production Researcher at Bejo, is involved in this project. "We're currently in the process of visualizing the data. Also, we're getting acquainted with different data types. "Once the seeds are harvested, we can start drawing comparisons and analyze, say, seed quality about climate data," he says.
Steering
This improved data and measurement density comes in handy when weather extremes occur. It is also useful for things that can be controlled, such as greenhouse climate in R&D. "For example, there are differences between crops with more leaf volume or less like onions and leeks." says Youri. "More leaves naturally allow for more evaporation. Crops without a lot of leaves have less gross evaporation. With knowledge about temperature and humidity, you can control the evaporation."
Here, Bejo is taking steps in open-field cultivation, too, with more uniform data. "We prepare and send out sensor kits, often by mail. We advise starting first with a few locations per country and seeing how that goes," says Youri. "That approach is going well”.