Tomota: a shrimp farmer’s finest pal?

Operating a profitable aquaculture operation is loads like conducting an orchestra. When your farm is in concord, then your ponds and cages will hold producing high-quality fish, shrimp and shellfish – in addition to hard-earned income. Disharmony via only one or two ‘off’ components – like water high quality points and illness – ends in underperforming and probably unprofitable operations: the largest fear of any farming enterprise.

Working with reside animals in an aquatic atmosphere means not the whole lot may be simply seen and measured. Giant-scale aquaculture operations have historically relied on a military of staff testing water parameters, ensuring inventory is correctly fed, fixing damaged aerators and tending to the infinite trivialities of a fish or shrimp farm. An enormous a part of decision-making on the farm can also be primarily based on the private expertise of the farm supervisor and sometimes depends on guesswork.

Enter the Tomota System, which goals to make the lives of shrimp farm operators simpler by making certain that the whole lot runs in concord, primarily based on correct numbers.

“Tomota means pal in Japanese and is a centralised management system, designed to handle shrimp farms extra effectively. Operators can see the whole lot happening of their farms inside 10 minutes, in contrast with handbook checks which take hours of tedious work,” explains Dr Van Vu, co-founder and CEO of Otanics Expertise, which co-developed, distributes and repeatedly refines Tomota’s primary management system and its different home equipment.

Returning to his native Vietnam in 2015 after finishing his PhD in bioinorganic chemistry from the College of Minnesota, Dr Vu ultimately entered the watery world of aquaculture after briefly experimenting with shrimp feeds.

Along with enterprise companions Tuan Nguyen and Minh Phu Seafood Company CEO, Le Van Quang, they based Otanics, which develops Tomota merchandise and runs an experimental high-tech farm.

“I used to be sufficient to start out a shrimp farm earlier than Otanics was established. We tried many experiments on the farm, which can also be the place we pilot-test lots of our first prototypes. We see these fashionable applied sciences as a strategy to make shrimp farming extra built-in, centralised and sustainable,” Dr Vu displays.

The Tomota System is now reaping ends in Vietnam and past. On the primary Minh Phu Loc An shrimp farm in Vietnam, 840 ponds are sustained by 5,000 totally different units – starting from paddlewheels to feeders.

“Over 100 individuals needed to work the evening shift to watch all these units, which have been scattered throughout a 300-hectare property. After we put in Tomota Edge and upgraded the machines to sensible units, simply two employees may monitor the whole lot from a central management room,” explains Dr Vu.

This transfer to data-driven farming has drastically saved labour prices, lowered farm dangers and elevated farm output considerably. Right this moment, Vu’s Tomota merchandise are serving over 200 shrimp farms and 100 hatcheries in 11 international locations.

Optimising operations with totally different instruments

Tomota’s system consists of a number of key parts designed to spice up the effectivity of your shrimp farm. Let’s get to know them higher.

The Web of Issues (IoT) is a time period for varied sensors, software program and applied sciences that collect, course of and analyse knowledge to optimise each day operations or manufacturing techniques. Dr Vu’s system makes use of the Cloud to entry and function Tomota IoT on any laptop computer or cell phone – helpful for operators who’re at all times on-the-go.

“Tomota IoT is our platform for operating your farm’s {hardware}, like aerators and computerized feeders. Shrimp farmers can fine-tune their techniques with only a few clicks. All you want is an web connection. Even with out sign although, it’ll hold your farm operating by way of pre-programmed scripts and orders. In fact, these can at all times be overridden manually onsite,” he explains.

Tomota IoT is especially helpful as a strategy to see if a few of your farm’s devices aren’t working correctly. Utilizing cameras and by repeatedly checking voltage, strain sensors and instrument standing, the system immediately notifies farm managers which machines should be recalibrated, rebooted, repaired or changed.

“We are able to monitor the runtime of each piece of {hardware} hooked up to Tomota IoT, making suggestions for preventive upkeep, which has been confirmed to be extremely efficient in lowering surprising instrument failure and lowering the price for fixing or changing failed devices,” notes Dr Vu.

The Tomota S3 is a small white field that counts PLs and bigger shrimp whereas measuring their size and weight, thereby forecasting the whole lot from the quantity of feed wanted in every pond, to the doable development charges and harvesting dates of the inventory. An optionally available computerized feeder with a digital scale ensures that solely the correct amount of feed is disbursed on the proper time, minimising feed waste, overhead prices and air pollution.

The Tomota A3 is a small black field that facilitates the measurement of pH, alkalinity, ammonium / nitrogen and nitrite ranges of pond water, with analysis underway to check different parameters. The system makes suggestions to optimise water high quality, which operators can act on.

“Utilizing this may drastically scale back your water remedy prices by telling you as an illustration, how a lot water you’ll must deal with over the subsequent days to optimise your orders for water remedy provides,” says Dr Vu, including that the system is powerful and requires minimal calibration, sometimes simply as soon as yearly.

Forecast the worth of your inventory

Realizing the present worth of the inventory in your ponds is a key instrument to maximise your earnings, notably when market and provide costs fluctuate nearly each day. Tomota S3 lets operators understand how a lot their inventory is price.

“We now have entry to probably the most dependable each day shrimp value chart in Vietnam. This value chart is kind of detailed and is break up in keeping with each shrimp dimension (items per kilogram) and high quality. The worth chart is built-in into the Tomota platform,” Dr Vu explains.

Customers can then gauge the worth of the biomass of their ponds to have a well-informed estimate of the income they may get at a selected time. Analysing the development of shrimp costs and the expansion curve proven by Tomota S3 permits customers to determine whether or not they can harvest or ought to for instance harvest the shrimp at bigger sizes.

S3 may also calculate the numbers, dimension, weight and estimated development charges of the shrimp.

“We use laptop imaginative and prescient and picture processing to find out the size of the shrimp. We now have an in depth quantity of science-backed knowledge to correlate size and weight. Measuring your shrimp twice weekly can generate a very good development curve, from which their common development charge may be extrapolated,” Dr Vu displays.

Pal of the shrimp manufacturing business

In keeping with Dr Vu, the Tomota System is repeatedly evolving. Other than engaged on algorithms for illness identification and prevention, his workforce is growing a climate forecasting mannequin, plus a system to foretell market traits for doable mid-to-long-term revenues from seafood, primarily based on varied components, similar to the value of feed and different provides.

He provides that Tomota’s distinctive promoting proposition is the seamless integration of its varied applied sciences, in comparison with different farm administration techniques that provide simply two or three capabilities.

“Our platform spans throughout the important thing sectors of the shrimp worth chain. We now have varied modules and serve all stakeholders, from huge and small farms, to hatcheries, feed and provide suppliers, shrimp patrons, processing crops and so forth. Our system may also simply combine third-party applied sciences,” he explains.

Tomota’s S3 and A3 techniques can be utilized as standalone merchandise. Operators can buy them and pay a small payment for every evaluation. The fundamental options of the administration software program are already accessible on buy, with extra downloadable functionalities, relying on every farm’s wants. Tomota’s pricing system seems to be modest, in comparison with comparable merchandise dominating the market.

• Tomota S3 White Field: $340 (300 free analyses).
• Tomota A3 Black Field: $400 (300 analyses and indicators for 300 checks).
• Tomota A3 Indicators: $0.20 – 0.40 (take a look at for 4 parameters).
• Tomota IoT: $2,000 – $3,000 per pond (relying on the format and variety of put in devices).
• Tomota FMS (farm administration software program bundle): Costs are customised for big company farms or farm teams.

In keeping with Dr Vu, in comparison with different confirmed and well-known manufacturers within the subject Tomota’s pricing is clear and its merchandise are very reasonably priced. The corporate believes this enables farm operators not simply simpler entry to its merchandise however it additionally to acquire extra S3 and A3 containers to upscale their farm operations.

He provides that his workforce additionally offers steerage, servicing and upkeep as wanted. The S3, for instance, can depend 4,000 PLs at a time. Because the software program runs on any cell phone as an alternative of within the field, fewer expensive mishaps are more likely to happen as nicely.

An extra argument in favor of Tomota’s merchandise is that the Tomota S3 and Tomota A3 may be self-fixed, however the firm additionally offers spare elements when wanted. Most elements of the Tomota IoT {hardware} will also be self-fixed, although different elements would require a Tomota membership contract or contractors to repair.

“We at all times reiterate the truth that Tomota means pal. Not solely do we wish our merchandise to be a shrimp farmer’s finest pal. We wish to be a pal to all gamers throughout the international shrimp ecosystem,” Dr Vu concludes.

Though we don’t use AI right here at The Fish Web sitewe will at all times use a pal to assist make our operations a bit higher. And if the efficiency and sturdiness of the Tomota System matches their enthusiastic and impressive gross sales pitch, then we’ll wager this firm has a vibrant future.

Study extra in regards to the Tomota system right here