A smart irrigation platform wins the 'Innowise Challenge Lab' in Spain

On September 24 the Spanish final of the Innowise Challenge Lab took place in Málaga during the Smart Agrifood Summit. This was one of the of the three final competitions for startups with the goal of finding innovations for water scarcity in Southern Europe. 10 Spanish finalists participated at this event: BrioAgro, Vestigia Blockchain, Detektia, Savia Atmospheric Fountains & Rivers, Graniot, Spherag Teck IoT, Fata Morgana, Métrica6, Groots and FS Group Consulting had to pitch their solutions after three months of intensive training and specialised workshops from the agrifood and water industry’s finest experts. 

Brioagro was the winner of the competition and received a 10,000€ award. Bioagro is a smart irrigation platform which uses low-cost technology based on information obtained by sensors that calibrate soil moisture and allow automatic irrigation when the crop needs it. Additionally, this platforms provides farmers with alerts about conditions that may threaten crops, so that they can take appropriate action in a convenient way through the mobile application. Moreover, Brioagro intelligently analyses the aggregated data, stratifying the recommendations according to each type of crop through a standardised process, making it possible to anticipate the reaction of decision making on irrigation and fertilisation. As a result, Brioagro avoids the risk of production losses, increasing farm yield and quality.

The second place winner, Vestigia Blockchain, received 5,000€ and presented a project to manage the operational and reputational risk within the supply chain which allows fraud control and protection. They offer automation and strict product control from the raw materials to the customer using IoT (Internet of Things) elements created specifically with AI designed by Vestigi Blockchains. 

These two startups provided solutions that – from the thematic categories of agrifood, climate, raw materials and manufacturing- give answer to one of the significant challenges affecting water scarcity detected by a groupof 16 experts: Digitisation for better water management, raising awareness and promoting education regarding local risks and measures, unlocking water Governance and financial schemes for the sustainability of the water scarcity measures, optimizing and matching water supply and demand, ensuring production control and better water consumption to allow legal enforcement and fostering climate change readiness from the perspective of water.