Robots fight weeds in challenge to
agrochemical giants
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[May 22, 2018]
By Ludwig Burger and Tom Polansek
YVERDON-LES-BAINS, Switzerland/CHICAGO
(Reuters) - In a field of sugar beet in Switzerland, a solar-powered
robot that looks like a table on wheels scans the rows of crops with its
camera, identifies weeds and zaps them with jets of blue liquid from its
mechanical tentacles.
Undergoing final tests before the liquid is replaced with weedkiller,
the Swiss robot is one of new breed of AI weeders that investors say
could disrupt the $100 billion pesticides and seeds industry by reducing
the need for universal herbicides and the genetically modified (GM)
crops that tolerate them.
Dominated by companies such as Bayer, DowDuPont, BASF and Syngenta, the
industry is bracing for the impact of digital agricultural technology
and some firms are already adapting their business models.
The stakes are high. Herbicide sales are worth $26 billion a year and
account for 46 percent of pesticides revenue overall while 90 percent of
GM seeds have some herbicide tolerance built in, according to market
researcher Phillips McDougall.
"Some of the profit pools that are now in the hands of the big
agrochemical companies will shift, partly to the farmer and partly to
the equipment manufacturers," said Cedric Lecamp, who runs the $1
billion Pictet-Nutrition fund that invests in companies along the food
supply chain.

In response, producers such as Germany's Bayer have sought partners for
their own precision spraying systems while ChemChina's Syngenta
[CNNCC.UL], for example, is looking to develop crop protection products
suited to the new equipment.
While still in its infancy, the plant-by-plant approach heralds a marked
shift from standard methods of crop production.
Now, non-selective weedkillers such as Monsanto's Roundup are sprayed on
vast tracts of land planted with tolerant GM seeds, driving one of the
most lucrative business models in the industry.
'SEE AND SPRAY'
But ecoRobotix https://www.ecorobotix.com/en, developer of the Swiss
weeder, believes its design could reduce the amount of herbicide farmers
use by 20 times. The company said it is close to signing a financing
round with investors and is due to go on the market by early 2019.
Blue River, a Silicon Valley startup bought by U.S. tractor company
Deere & Co. for $305 million last year, has also developed a machine
using on-board cameras to distinguish weeds from crops and only squirt
herbicides where necessary.
Its "See and Spray" weed control machine, which has been tested in U.S.
cotton fields, is towed by a tractor and the developers estimate it
could cut herbicide use by 90 percent once crops have started growing.
German engineering company Robert Bosch
http://www.bosch-presse.de/pressportal/de/en/research-collaboration-between-bosch-and-bayer-turns-farms-digital-125120.html
is also working on similar precision spraying kits as are other startups
such as Denmark's Agrointelli
http://agrointelli.com/roboweedmaps.html.

ROBO Global https://www.roboglobal.com/about-us, an advisory firm that
runs a robotics and automation investment index tracked by funds worth a
combined $4 billion, believes plant-by-plant precision spraying will
only gain in importance.
"A lot of the technology is already available. It's just a question of
packaging it together at the right cost for the farmers," said Richard
Lightbound, Robo's CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
"If you can reduce herbicides by the factor of 10 it becomes very
compelling for the farmer in terms of productivity. It's also eco
friendly and that's clearly going to be very popular, if not compulsory,
at some stage," he said.
'PAUSE FOR THOUGHT'
While Blue River, based in Sunnyvale, California, is testing a product
in cotton fields, it plans to branch into other major crops such as soy.
It expects to make the product widely available to farmers in about four
to five years, helped by Deere's vast network of equipment dealers.
ROBO's Lightbound and Pictet's Lecamp said they were excited by the
project and Jeneiv Shah, deputy manager of the 152 million pound ($212
million) Sarasin Food & Agriculture Opportunities fund, said the
technology would put Bayer and Syngenta's crop businesses at risk while
seed firms could be hit - albeit to a lesser extent.
"The fact that a tractor and row-crop oriented company such as John
Deere did this means it won't be long before corn or soybean farmers in
the U.S. Midwest will start using precision spraying," Shah said.
While the technology promises to save money, it could be a tough sell to
some U.S. farmers as five years of bumper harvests have depressed prices
for staples including corn and soybeans. U.S. farm incomes have dropped
by more than half since 2013, reducing spending on equipment, seeds and
fertilizer.
Still, the developments are giving investors in agrochemicals stocks
pause for thought, according to Berenberg analyst Nick Anderson. And
agrochemical giants are taking note.
Bayer, which will become the world's biggest seeds and pesticides
producer when its acquisition of GM crop pioneer Monsanto completes,
teamed up with Bosch in September for a "smart spraying" research
project.
The German partners plan to outpace rivals by using an on-board arsenal
of up to six different herbicides and Bayer hopes the venture will
prepare it for a new commercial model - rather than cannibalizing its
current business.
"I would assume that within three years we would have a robust
commercially feasible model," Liam Condon, the head of Bayer's crop
science division said in February.
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The prototype of an autonomous weeding machine by Swiss start-up
ecoRobotix is pictured during tests on a sugar beet field near
Bavois, Switzerland May 18, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

"I'm not concerned in terms of damping sales because we don't define
ourselves as a volume seller. We rather offer a prescription for a
weed-free field, and we get paid based on the quality of the
outcome," he said.
Bayer agreed to sell its digital farming ventures, including the
Bosch project, to German rival BASF as part of efforts to win
antitrust approval to buy Monsanto. But BASF will grant Bayer an
unspecified license to the digital assets and products.
BASF said the Bosch precision spraying collaboration was very
interesting but it was too early to comment further as the
transaction had not completed.
'PART OF THE STORY'
Syngenta, which was an investor in Blue River before Deere took
over, said the advantages of the new technology outweighed any
potential threats to its business model.
"We will be part of the story, by making formulations and new
molecules that are developed specifically for this technology," said
Renaud Deval, global head of weed control at Syngenta, which was
bought by ChemChina last year.
While it has no plans to invest directly in engineering, Syngenta is
looking into partnerships where it can contribute products and
services, Deval said.
Still, Sarasin's Shah said the big agrochemical firms would need to
accelerate spending on getting their businesses ready for new
digital agricultural technology.
"The established players need to invest a lot more than they
currently are to be positioned better in 10 years' time. The sense
of urgency will increase as farmers start to adopt some of the more
advanced kits that are coming out," he said.

Michael Underhill, chief investment officer at Capital Innovations,
also said the major players may be underestimating the potential
impact on their pesticides businesses.
"Precision leads to efficiency, efficiency leads to decreased usage,
decreased usage leads to decreased margins or margin compression,
and that will lead to companies getting leaner and meaner," said
Underhill.
He said the GM seeds market would also take a hit if machine
learning takes over the role genetic engineering has played so far
in shielding crops from herbicides' friendly fire.
"Instead of buying the Cadillac of seeds or the Tesla of seeds, they
may be buying the Chevy version," Underhill said.
NEW WEAPONS
The advent of precision weed killing also comes at a time blanket
spraying of global blockbusters such as glyphosate is under fire
from environmentalists and regulators alike.
More than 20 years of near-ubiquitous use of glyphosate, the active
substance in Monsanto's Roundup, has created resistant strains of
weeds that are spreading across the U.S. farm belt.
Regulators have raised the bar for bringing blanket chemical agents
to market and the fear of toxic risks has been heightened by the
debate over the potential impact of glyphosate on health.
Michael Owen, associate chair at Iowa State University's Department
of Agronomy, reckons it would now cost agrochemical giants up to an
almost prohibitive $400 million to develop a next-generation
universal weedkiller.
Bayer's Condon said in the current environment precision spraying
could well be the final blow to further attempts to develop new
broad-spectrum or non-selective herbicides.
"Everything that comes tends to be selective in nature. There won't
be a new glyphosate. That was probably a once-in-a-lifetime
product," said Condon.

For now, the industry is reviving and reformulating older,
broad-spectrum agents known as dicamba and 2,4-D to finish off
glyphosate-resistant weeds - and it is selling new GM crops tolerant
to those herbicides too.
Precision spraying could mean established herbicides whose effect
has worn off on some weeds could be used successfully in more
potent, targeted doses, said Claude Juriens, head of business
development at ecoRobotics in Yverdon-les Bains.
But experts say new products will still be needed for the new
technology and some chemical firms are considering reviving
experimental herbicides once deemed too costly or complex.
"Because we're now giving the grower an order of magnitude reduction
in the amount of herbicide they're using, all of a sudden these more
expensive, exotic herbicides are now in play again," said Willy
Pell, Blue River director of new technology.
"They've actually devoted resources to looking through their
backlog, kind of cutting room floor, and rethinking these different
materials with our machine in mind," he said.
(Additional reporting by Rod Nickel in Toronto and Simon Jessop in
London; editing by David Clarke)
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