Exploratory Landscape
Pest traps: digital monitoring technologies
Client overview
The client was a producer of pheromone-based solutions, enabling more effective pest management in agriculture with the use of less chemical pesticides. Their pheromones could be used in tandem with a trap system to monitor pest numbers, with standard traps relying on farmers to manually inspect and determine whether sufficient pests were present to require action. This process was time-consuming and labour intensive; hence the client was interested in exploring the potential for developing a simple and low-cost digital trap system that will allow farmers to automatically monitor pests remotely. Strategic Allies Ltd (SAL) were tasked to conduct an exploratory landscape with the aim to understand if there were autonomous trap systems that the client could already use (e.g. via white label) or if there was room for the client to develop their own device.
The search
SAL performed a desktop-based search using publicly available information (e.g. company websites, patent databases, market reports, scientific papers, etc.) to gather an understanding on the types of automated trap systems that were available for use in agriculture. Technologies of interest would include those that were capable of detecting the number and type of pests caught in traps, providing farmers with data to make informed decisions in real-time about their pest management strategies. SAL captured insights on the design of device, power specifications, data network/transmission capability, target pests, crop types and how technologies were being offered to farmers (e.g. rent, lease, as-a-service, etc.). SAL then interviewed a shortlisted number of companies to explore their interest in a partnership opportunity with our client and to understand the different ways they would be open to collaborating. All of these findings were summarised in a report and delivered to the client within a 4-week timeline.
“The results have been extremely insightful”
“very helpful…more generally, thank you”
Outcome
SAL investigated and presented 19 technologies for automatic monitoring of pests with potential partners highlighted to the client.
5 shortlisted companies were interviewed by SAL – this provided the client with a better understanding of each technology along with the company’s developmental capability and interest in a potential partnership opportunity.