Agriculture is the primary source of income and the economy in most of the countries in the world. Agriculture helps in economic growth by employing people, promoting the industrial sector, and contributing to national income. Agriculture is one of the largest export industries in Australia which contributes billions to the nation’s trade balance.
Australian farmers face many challenges, including climate change, drought, poor soil, water resources, pests, low capital, lack of laborers, and many more. Agriculture consumes around 70% of the water used by humans and among that 60 % is wasted due to a lack of monitoring which consumes farmer’s time. Hence the problem of water supply management goes unnoticed and needs a solution for the proper utilization of resources to provide sustainability and increase productivity in agriculture.
In this article, we discuss the journey of Andrew Coppin who is an inspiring and passionate entrepreneur, founder, and CEO of Farmbot Monitoring Solutions. The company delivers hardware and software solutions to farmers across Australia. The company is focused on the vision “to provide visibility and control over water assets to contribute to a more sustainable and stable water supply in the future”. This helps farmers cost-effectively improve profitability and productivity.
Andrew Coppin: Founder & CEO
Andrew Coppin is a passionate entrepreneur with 9 years of experience in founding Agritech companies. He has completed his education at Edith Cowan University in the stream of business and commerce. He started his career as a Senior financial consultant at Mclnotosh and later worked as an Executive Director at Patersons Securities Ltd. Andrew founded Coppin & Partners in 2009 which provides investment services and advice to clients. He was a head of wealth management and Managing Director & CEO at WilsonHTM Investment Groups. Later he was a Non-Executive Director at Timezone Froup International and Chairman of The CEO Institute. Andrew has also worked as a President for the Australian Agritech Association and a Council Member of The Australian New Zealand Agritech Council.
Andrew has experience in cattle stations with his family and merging that with a career in financial markets focusing on the agricultural sector. He is passionate about innovating new solutions to improve agriculture and help farmers to increase productivity, profitability, and sustainability. Andrew with his passion and experience founded Farmbot Monitoring Solutions in the year 2014, which is a remote monitoring solution for the agricultural industry.
About Farmbot Monitoring Solutions
Farmbot Monitoring Solutions is an agri-tech company that was established in the year 2014. The company was founded by Andrew Coppin and its headquarters is located in New South Wales Australia. Farmbot provides farmers with a smart, cost-effective, and easy solution to manage water resources.
The products and solutions of Farmbot are easy to install and use, the SaaS platform will gather all the data points through the unique IoT device which helps farmers get real-time information about their water assets including water levels, alerts, and trends. The reports are sent to farmers via SMS and e-mails. The data gathered is used for predictive analysis, to improve management, production, and resource allocation. Thus the proprietary technology by transmitting data provides real-time reports which in turn helps farmers improve their business by making the right decisions.
Farmbot has designed and manufactured multiple products to help farmers manage their water assets. Some of them are Farmbot, Xtend, Lite, Pump Control, Rain Guage, Wireless through sensor, Diesel Level Sensor, Camera, Water flow sensor, Liquid Fertilizer Sensor, Safety Chick-in, Line pressure sensor, etc. All these are easy to install with simple steps of 15 minutes and time-savings through real-time alerts which helps for short and long-term planning. The data-driven mode will provide farmers with insights into their water usage and identity areas to save money and increase efficiency.
Farmbot offers affordable, near-real-time satellite communications which improve profitability and productivity by refuting about 70% of the operational cost. It also improves animal welfare and carbon emissions by $1 a day. Farmbot provides solutions for sustainable agriculture outcomes along with maximizing profit.