Plant diseases and pests can pose a serious threat to food security and the livelihoods of the global farming community. Statistics show that pest and disease outbreaks can result in losses as high as 30% in crop yields, especially in developing countries. In ______ [state the year product was conceptualized], we came together to form Agrice, a privately held corporation, to address this challenge that cuts across many nations around the world.

Realizing that conventional methods of plant disease diagnosis were either unavailable, inadequate, or too costly to meet the needs of the crop farming community, we came up with a plant diagnostic application that would enable early disease detection to be done rapidly and accurately for better plant health management. The idea was to do away with visual observation, which is highly subjective and unreliable, and replace it with a novel disease detection technique – namely, a mobile application and drone-related software that can diagnose various crop-related diseases. The app uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning-based algorithms to inform the users of any nutrient deficiencies caused by the disease and advises on appropriate treatments for the condition.

As a result, gardeners, farmers, and agronomists can now benefit from an application that can be downloaded into their smartphones for a fee. Currently, most plant disease diagnostic applications are cloud-based, but ours has broken new ground in this respect because it doesn’t require an internet connection to work.