Agriculture startup uses drones to grow business

With drone technology quickly growing, entrepreneurs are using it to offer innovative solutions to global problems.

James Peverill, CEO and founder of Greensight Agronomics, is one of those entrepreneurs. Peverill’s company Greensight uses drone technology to “survey agricultural land and reduce the amount of chemicals, water, and labor required,” he said.

GreenSight provides analysis for land managers, combining automated drones, advanced sensors, and data analytics to deliver people such as farmers alerts.

On flyover, drones take images of property, which are uploaded to the cloud. From there, the company analyzes the images to provide advice on management practices. “It’s really all about giving them actionable intelligence to improve business efficiency,” said Peverill.

Peverill is one of many entrepreneurs who started out in the government sector. His reasons for leaving were clear. “In building military products, the timeframes are really long,” said Peverill. When he was assigned to work on rapid development projects, he felt more energized and motivated.

“We really wanted to cross over and use a lot of the experience we gained in the military world doing commercial work, where things can be fast,” he told What’s Working in Washington.

While drones are a relatively new technology, Peverill’s interest was piqued from a young age. “I always loved airplanes when I was a kid, but I was also really into programming and computers,” he said. “Drones are kind of the fusion of those two things, so it’s kind of an ideal place for me to work.”

Though Greensight was originally founded in Boston, the company moved to the D.C. region because it was a hub for most of its customers. The company also received government grants, which solidified the decision.

Part of the process of automatic services like this leads to criticism that such technology is taking jobs from the workforce. “The drone is only one piece of the technology… the real value we’re creating is how we’re analyzing and processing that data,” said Peverill. With analysis, coding and management still being done by humans, “all we’re taking out of the equation is the person that’s actually flying the drone,” he said.

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