UK: Potato store technology puts control in the hands of the grower

A Norfolk potato grower said a pioneering new storage technology can help reduce his energy costs – and meet the strict quality demands of the crisp manufacturer he supplies. The new SmartStor controller, developed by Crop Systems, based in Gimingham near Mundesley, won a national certificate of merit for innovation at the LAMMA farm machinery show in January. It continually monitors all aspects of the store, and gives users remote access to the control settings from a smart phone or computer, allowing them to react to faults and environmental factors, such as colder weather or a rise in carbon dioxide or humidity levels. Grower Ali Cargill said: “It is a great leap forward. 30 years ago there were 20,000 potato farmers, but now there are more like 2,000. That equation means there are more stores being run by fewer people, and they may be miles apart. You can either spend all your time on the road driving between stores, or you can rely on a system like this to monitor them from a smartphone, which will alert you if something is going wrong.” More