How quickly can you see value from Fotenix?

Fotenix starts delivering value as soon as it’s installed. Our automated crop scout is normally up and running within a day. Fixed systems depend on the unit and environment, but are usually installed and operational within a few days. 

From that point, the crop is automatically scanned every 24 hours, providing near real-time visibility of every plant in every line.

The value of that shows up in three areas immediately: labour, intervention, and yield.

1. Labour: Reduce time spent walking the crop

A skilled crop scout typically covers between 1 and 2 hectares a day, or 10 hectares a week. Fotenix has been shown to improve scouting efficiency by up to 5x — effectively compressing a week’s worth of crop walking into a single day of coverage. 

Of course, we don’t speed up manual scouting, we remove the need for routine, full-coverage crop walking, allowing your team to spend their time on intervention and decision-making, rather than observation.

2. Intervention: Reduce the cost of reacting late

The cost of intervention is directly correlated with how early a problem is identified. Spot disease or pest issues early, and interventions can be targeted and efficient. Leave it a few days, and that same issue can spread across a compartment, requiring broader treatment and more labour to manage it.

Fotenix 2024 Digital Crop Management Grower Survey showed that a single missed TSSM outbreak on 5ha of peppers escalates from a localised hotspot to a compartment-wide issue within 7–10 days. Blanket biological treatment can cost £3,000–£5,000, versus £300–£500 for a targeted intervention if caught early.

In practical terms, targeted intervention can cost as little as 10% of widespread treatment. 

3. Yield: Protect crop value

DEFRA estimates that a 1% yield loss from pests and disease is worth £10,163 per hectare, within a greenhouse.

On a 10ha site, that’s over £100,000 of crop value at risk from relatively small losses. Preventing even a small proportion of that loss has a measurable financial impact.

Earlier detection doesn’t remove risk, but it reduces how far issues develop before action is taken, which directly affects final quality and marketable yield.

Time to value

Because these gains are cumulative, Fotenix's value builds quickly.

Labour savings begin in the first week, earlier detection starts in the first scan cycle, and intervention costs reduce once issues start to be identified earlier than they would have been manually. For many growers, that combination is enough to generate a positive ROI in a matter of months.  

Find out how quickly Fotenix could start delivering value on your site.

Contact us today

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