Isagri buys Sencrop connected weather stations

rance’s Isagri Group – which owns the France Agricole media group that includes Vitisphere – aims to become a global benchmark for connected farming technology. It has announced that it has bought Sencrop which specialises in collaborative weather forecasting, monitoring of agronomic and climatic risks, water and irrigation management.

The Lille-based company was founded in 2016 and has a staff of 80. Its revenue across 35 countries totals €8 million and it boasts the largest network of agricultural weather stations in Europe with 35,000 active devices. It enables Isagri to ramp up its database, “as part of the agro-environmental transition process and in a context where profit margins are under intense pressure, requiring farms to know how to use data and AI and take advantage of them”.

Sencrop is now a subsidiary company of the Isagri group and its application becomes the receptacle of the Météus weather stations. “The merger offers a long-term future for the network our customers have invested in and guarantees them the presence of a robust partner using the finest present-day and future technologies”, said a delighted Pascal Chevallier, managing director of the Isagri group. “Just like Waze, the aim is to provide farmers who buy a weather station or just take out a subscription with the largest possible network”, adds Martin Ducroquet, co-founder of Sencrop. Alongside his colleague Michaël Bruniaux, he is delighted to be able to tap into Isagri’s marketing clout to expedite development of the collaborative platform and to aim towards leading the way in precision farming techniques. Starting next year, Isagri and Sencrop will be jointly developing a device that uses the GSM network which is more accurate than Sigfox and can be rolled out in every country.