Syngenta, Goanna Ag & Cotton Seed Distributors to introduce AI-powered FastStart program

New Delhi: Cotton growers in Australia are set to benefit from an innovative new AI-powered tool designed to enhance planting decisions, with a collaboration between Syngenta, Goanna Ag, and Cotton Seed Distributors (CSD). 

This cutting-edge technology is the latest addition to the FastStart™ cotton program, aimed at bolstering grower confidence by providing a more precise understanding of optimal planting times.

Unveiled at the 2024 Cotton Conference, the FastStart™ Field Forecast offers growers a powerful new way to predict the ideal conditions for planting cotton, tailored specifically to the diverse climates of Australia’s cotton-growing regions. The tool, designed for ease of use, builds upon the existing Traffic Light system, which has long been a trusted resource for cotton farmers. 

The FastStart™ Field Forecast is particularly valuable for growers in colder areas, such as southern New South Wales, where accurate temperature readings are critical to avoid setbacks like cold shock, seedling diseases, and growth delays.

The AI-powered tool simplifies complex data, delivering a user-friendly seven-day outlook that can help farmers make more informed decisions about when to plant. The system relies on soil temperature measurements, with the recommended threshold being 14 degrees Celsius, recorded at a depth of 10 centimeters at 8 a.m. daily. The new AI-driven forecast tool offers additional insights to complement these measurements, giving farmers even greater confidence in their planting schedules.

John Pattinson, Chief Development Officer at Goanna Ag, shared insights into the development of the FastStart™ Field Forecast. “Using known data, we have trained the algorithm to make these interpretations. When we run the model, it predicts, reflects and iterates, over and over again, building on its own accuracy. It’s complex in the way it works but the outputs are quick and simple. The tool learns nuances and variations between central Queensland, the Liverpool Plains, the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, and everywhere in between. The forecast it produces is specific to the grower’s location,” he said.