PETALING JAYA: Ancom Nylex Bhd
has teamed up with Mimos Bhd and HELM AG, a German crop protection and fertiliser group, to help local farmers improve yields with better use of technology, chemicals and fertilisers.
Mimos will apply digital agriculture solutions through SKYFLD, a powerful digital agriculture platform developed by HELM’s precision farming platform.
It enables farmers to map their fields and monitor crop health using satellite data.
This data is used to improve yields by targeting fertiliser and crop treatments, Ancom Nylex stated in a statement.
Farmers can also monitor biomass performance and health to identify and investigate critical zones and take countermeasures.
“This will help farmers to improve their yield while reducing the environmental impact of farming by cutting waste and addressing issues like agricultural run-off,” said Datuk Siew Ka Wei, the executive chairman of Ancom Nylex.
He added the rising costs of fertiliser and chemicals have significantly affected farmers’ livelihoods and digital agriculture is one way to improve farmers’ income sustainability and to ensure sufficient food production and the country’s food security.
The digital agriculture initiative includes the use of HELM’s mobile crop doctor, the Plantix digital application for farmers to upload photos of sick plants for analysis.
Covering 30 major crops, Plantix uses artificial intelligence to recognise more than 400 different types of plant pests, diseases, and nutritional deficits to enable farmers and agronomists to farm more efficiently and sustainably.
Plantix is available in 18 languages and has been downloaded more than 10 million times, which makes it the top agricultural app for damage detection, pest and disease control, and yield improvement for farmers worldwide..
Mimos, HELM and Ancom Nylex will share their expertise and roll out a local pilot phase to ensure quality assurance across crops, regions, among other criteria across the country.
Ancom Nylex stated the data collected will be treated with confidentiality and in compliance with government guidelines.
The results from the first phase of this partnership will be reviewed by the first quarter of 2024.
HELM is one of the largest independent chemical companies worldwide. Based in Hamburg, it is a family-owned company established in 1900 with up to 100 subsidiaries and participation in more than 30 countries.
