Valeria Kogan, PhD, Founder and CEO of Ferma are recognized as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 “in 2022, Valeria is a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record in biotechnology and innovation. Ferma and Biotech firm, as the founder of the smartomika, combine its scientific expertise with a visionary approach to change the valeria industries.
Ferma is a data science company that brings revolution in agriculture with state -of -the -art computer vision solution. Its main platform, clotimus™Gives 24/7 automated identity of pests and diseases, which helps producers to identify issues such as powder mildew, bud rot and mosaic before growing. By reducing the scouting time and reducing crop losses, Ferma empowered farmers to focus on solutions and maximize the yield, whether it is in controlled environment or external settings.
What did you inspire you for infection in agricultural technology from bio -informality and cancer research? How did your experience with Smartomika affect the establishment of Ferma?
My infection in agriculture from Biotech was quite casual. My friends’ friends who were the creators of tomatoes were looking for someone with experience in AI to brainstorm together on their applications in farming. This was the time when Deep Learning has just started and has a lot of discussion in Tech Space – it also found immediate application in medical domain through computer vision in radiology. Everyone in my circle was talking about it, so when I saw what the cultivating people showed me – the issues of plant health that can be blindly detected and needs to be identified in real time – It was clicked immediately. I had the idea of bringing knowledge from medical space to agriculture, then very few popular and digitized industry.
With a background in AI and Biotech, what challenges did you face to adopt those techniques for agriculture?
I think that in general anyone who comes with a digital product for a conservative industry faces the same level of resistance. However, it is difficult if you are an outsider. My approach was and to help people, my company is being humble and operated by the desire to apply knowledge, not to tell them what they are doing wrong and how we are doing them correctly Can help. Through every conversation with producers, we learn and try to stay open -minded and not connected to their technology, while prioritizing the needs of the producer and adjusting our product accordingly.
Ferma focuses on crop loss and use of pesticides. What was the initial reception of this idea in the agricultural community, and how did you convince stakeholders to adopt AI-operated solutions?
The initial reception was that this was not possible. I can’t say that a lot has changed in the last 5 years! We see great support from early adopts and a lot of concerns from comprehensive audiences. We are lucky for customers who believe in technology and do not just pay us money, but become showcases for the rest of the market. The best and only one thing we can actually do is let the product speak for yourself.
How to integrate several data sources, such as satellite imagery, sensors and AI models to provide actionable insights for producers?
Currently, we use only visual data from cameras to analyze plant health and identify pests, diseases, nutrient problems and other issues. However, with new development in the AI sector, we understand the benefits that can bring both additional data sources to the quality of high identity and to enable future analysis. Currently, we only use climate data in some projects, but plan to expand further in 2025.
Does the initial insect and disease detection abilities of Fermata unique compared to other Agtech solutions?
There are many things that make us unique. First, in the last 5 years, we have collected a crazy database of plant image through our customers and with our own R&D feature, where we infect plants to collect additional data. We also used an internal labeling team, which we trained very carefully. In combination with a broad network of agronomy experts from all over the world, this helped us to create very high quality datasets. The deep understanding of machine learning in combination with product vision helped us create a useful and simple product on top of it.
AI and computer visions are moving fast. How does Forma ensure that its technology is ahead of the curve in this competitive scenario?
In Ferma, we follow a data-centered approach, which ensure high quality and flexible data labeling by bringing agricultural and data scientists together. We invest in diverse datasets to keep our technology competitive and we also focus on solving specific problems and cooperate with partners to stay the best when we do.
You have emphasized stability as an important goal. How do you affect global efforts to reduce food waste and environmental damage to Formata’s technique?
Helping farmers identify pests and diseases in time help them to prevent damage, reduce food waste, and reduce pesticides use. This is particularly important in the current environment when climate is changing. Many producers suffer from new insects or diseases that they have never seen in their areas before. Because of that, initial identity and assistance in tuning the mitigation strategies is necessary for them.
Running $ 10 million in series A funding is an important milestone. How will this funding increase the vision of Formata, and what are your instantaneous priorities for development?
We use this money to grow from “The Eyes of AG” to “AG’s brain”, which by integrating more data sources in our platform and comprehensive the list of products which we provide beyond pests and diseases We do. Our immediate preferences include focusing on some markets – Canada and Netherlands, and tomato crops, which include a significant market share for the section and then to repeat it for other areas and crops.
What role do you play in Form’s future innovations, emerging technologies like robotics or IOT?
I believe that the progress in robotics and IOT will bring a huge value for the form, as all these companies are our potential partners. We are eager to see both new methods to collect automated solutions along with collecting data to move through convenience and use low sensors and cameras to achieve similar goals.
What’s next for Ferma? Are there specific crops, fields or technologies that you are especially excited to find in the coming years?
In 2025 we will mainly focus on tomato growers in Canada and Netherlands, but after that we want to expand our services to other vegetables such as cucumbers and chillies, then strawberries and grapes. I hope that we will enter global markets later this year and in 2026 with new crops. Regarding technologies, our plans are to move beyond pests and diseases to predict yield, assessing pollination, and many other exciting functions where farmers will appreciate the help of AI.
Thanks for the great interview, those who want to learn more, should visit Ferma.
