Precision agriculture is giving farmers an edge to digitise their farm management operations while also staying ahead of nasty diseases that could hurt crop yields. Using cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Croatian company, AGRIVI, is leading the charge with powerful solutions designed to help farmers in an area where they sorely need a digital boost.
By David Silverberg
Imagine you are a farmer who is overwhelmed with the many tasks peppering your day, from rotating crops and fertilising the soil to meeting with vendors and suppliers. But one area you cannot neglect is ensuring your crops are free of any diseases that could lower yields and hurt productivity.
Enter the field of precision agriculture, which harnesses hard technology and software to make those daily farming responsibilities more efficient.
At the forefront of this agricultural trend is AGRIVI, a Croatian company founded in 2013 with an ambitious goal to help farmers plan, monitor and analyse all the activities on their farms.
According to CEO Matija Zulj, their core products include 360 Farm Management Software, which is designed to simplify and optimise farm management, providing tools for daily operations and long-term planning.
“Our mission is not just to bring a simple farming app to growers, but we aim to develop cutting-edge technology solutions and leverage the power of AI to support farmers to be more efficient and profitable. We want to reduce waste and lower barriers to entry for a new generation of farmers,” Zulj explains.
Launching as a farm management software company, AGRIVI quickly evolved, as it recognised that transforming agriculture required collaboration across the entire agri-food value chain. This decision led to expanding their offerings to support a wide range of stakeholders, including food companies, input manufacturers, retailers, agribusiness banks and ministries of agriculture.
Their clients include Driscoll’s, a leading global berry company; McCormick, a major tequila producer from Mexico; the European retail business, Kaufland; and Neumann Kaffe Gruppe, one of the largest global coffee traders.
AI tech is threaded through AGRIVI’s entire product portfolio, such as within their Personalised AI Advisor. “Companies can deliver their AI Advisors to the farmers they work with, whether they are their customers or cooperants, and it acts as an expert agronomic advisor available 24/7,” notes Zulj, adding how it is also accessible through messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Viber, giving the product much-needed flexibility regardless of the farmer’s technological competencies.
To cite one case study, AGRIVI assisted Peruvian agro-industrial company, Processadora Tropical, which produces plantain, cassava, cocoa and ginger to move away from managing their many farms using Excel spreadsheets. AGRIVI encouraged them to shift to a single platform allowing for centralised access to data. The company was able to track crop health and realise when to take advantage of the best practices for preserving crop yield during variable weather conditions.
Precision agriculture is a sector that is accelerating at a heady pace. Its global market size is poised to reach 29.25 billion US dollars by 2032 at a compound annual growth rate of 12.24%. A 2025 study from Clemson University found that precision agriculture technologies, such as real-time data analytics, “enables informed decision-making, optimising resource utilisation and overall farm productivity.”
A specific innovation gaining momentum is dubbed AGRIVI-Meteo Control, a comprehensive agricultural management solution that integrates the company’s platform with advanced meteorological stations. What this means, Zulj says, is that this system offers a specialised AI algorithm for the early detection of Fusarium head blight and Septoria diseases in wheat crops.
“It provides early warnings of potential disease outbreaks before symptoms become widely visible, enabling timely interventions and mitigating yield losses,” he adds.
AGRIVI is tackling crippling diseases devastating wheat crops worldwide. To use one example, Fusarium head blight caused indirect economic impact on major food crops in a two-year period that amounted to approximately 2.67 billion US dollars. Zulj notes that both diseases can lead to yield reductions ranging from 31% to 53% annually.
AGRIVI poured significant R&D into this product, he adds. The company enhanced “the AI algorithm to detect Fusarium head blight and Septoria diseases at the primary infection stage. This included upgrading meteorological stations to 4G connectivity, implementing low-energy data collection modules and developing an API to facilitate data integration.”
Zulj credits the partnership with Eureka as vital to the success of this technology. “Through these projects, we have successfully developed and validated new AI models using real-world agricultural data, upgraded hardware infrastructure with 4G connectivity and implemented low-energy data collection modules to enhance data accuracy and availability,” he says.
Additionally, these projects led to strategic partnerships with international technology providers, allowing AGRIVI to expand their technical expertise and refine the platform’s predictive capabilities.
Digitising agriculture is a complex mission due to how many farmers and major brands may resist change or how they may want to remain loyal to their current software vendors, even if they may be outdated. But Zulj is unfased by these challenges and instead shares a vision for AGRIVI that could be the model for any forward-thinking agri-tech business.
“We want to become a leading global solution in the enterprise segment of digital agriculture and food industry technologies,” he says, “and to serve as a key partner in transforming the agri-food value chain toward a more sustainable and tech-driven future.”
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Eureka programme and project name: Eurostars-2 Agrivi-Meteo Control
Countries involved: Bulgaria, Croatia
Project duration: 2021-2023
Eureka programme and project name: Eurostars-3 AgriDrone
Countries involved: Croatia, Romania
Project duration: 2024-2025
