Veris Technologies is doing what any committed any company specializing in agricultural technology should do: it’s thinking ahead and developing products it anticipates farmers will need in the near future. Representative Eric Lund says that’s why Veris has developed near infrared mapping. The technology is designed primarily for mapping soil carbon, a need that Eric explains might not be relevant right now, but one that is imminent.

“That’s a technology that really doesn’t have a commercial need right now because farmers aren’t needing to map their carbon,” Eric said. “But, in a couple of years, they may be able to sell soil carbon under a soil carbon sequestration program where they would really need to map beginning levels of carbon and ending levels of carbon. We have developed technologies that will enable them to do that cost effectively using near infrared sensing.”

Eric says the measurements obtained through infrared mapping are high quality measurements because they formed from direct contact versus remote imagery. Currently, researchers are using the technology and Eric expects the technology to be adapted to the commercial agriculture sector within the next two to four years. Especially, he says, in light of current levels of food and energy needs around the world:

“With demand for products high and the need to be able to produce as much food and fiber and energy as we can, anything we can do to produce more food and more fiber and more energy with the same or even less inputs is going to be good for the farmer, environment and basically everybody,” Eric said. “Consumers especially.”

I interviewed Eric about Veris Technologies’ carbon mapping applications. You can listen to my interview here:
eric-lund-preag-08.mp3