Making data do its work
FISH farmers can use the Wittaya AquaOp platform to track, visualise and analyse every aspect of their operations.
Created by Wittaya Aqua International, the cloud based farm management platform helps producers run their farm more efficiently, profitably and sustainably, said the company’s Dominque Bureau.
‘Aquaculture producers love to collect data; however, they use all kinds of different techniques and approaches to compile their data,’ said Dr Bureau.
Often this involves paper and spreadsheets that multiply and are very ‘idiosyncratic’. Also, the information collected contains errors, or the parameters are biased.
This means that farmers spend considerable amounts of time recording raw data, but do not have tools at their disposal to make effective use of this information.
He and co-founder Evan Hall decided to form a company that develops cloud based software that allows efficient compilation and secure storing of the data.
There are a few other aquaculture farm management systems on the market, but their price points make them prohibitive to most small and medium sized farms, said Bureau.
As the aquaculture industry continues to grow rapidly, there is a large and pressing need for powerful and accessible data tools for farms.
‘Wittaya Aqua helps solve this problem by providing farms with a powerful, intuitive, affordable software platform that helps farms take control of their data.’
The technology combines the team’s experience in aquaculture nutrition, feed formulation, process optimisation, software development and management, with input from dozens of farms from around the world, said the company, which is based in Toronto, Canada.
The system boasts cutting edge machine learning and AI algorithms, which spot patterns in a farm’s operations over time and help farmers optimise harvest date, stocking density, feeding regimens, and much more, said Wittaya Aqua.
Over time, this will help farms eliminate feed waste, reduce environmental impact and decrease the risk of disease.