CNH Industrial announced a minority investment in the U.S.-based ag tech company EarthOptics through its Ventures arm.
EarthOptics' proprietary sensor technology precisely measures the health and structure of soil through a combination of ground-based sensors, satellites, physical soil samples, machine learning models and agronomic expertise.
By providing such a wide range of soil data, this technology enables farmers to better manage their land and enhance its value. Insights can help them drive multiple improvements from increasing crop yield to reducing fertilizer application, and assessing their farm's carbon impact, to name a few key areas.
This funding — part of EarthOptics' Series B investment round — will help to further build out their sensor suite's hyper-accuracy capabilities to boost acreage growth and bring greater savings. It also will allow the company to scale cooperation with service providers (agronomists, crop consultants and trusted third party advisors) for data insights.
CNH Industrial will begin a pilot testing phase of EarthOptics' soil sensing technology through its Case IH brand in 2023. Commercial plans will be the subject of future announcements. The goal of this technology is to accelerate work in tillage automation and provide greater agronomic insights for customers.
