Meet the 3.0 Finalists: Permia Sensing (UK)

Palm plantations, whether for dates, coconuts, or oil palms, typically achieve only about half of their potential yield. Trees are often lost early to pests and diseases, and surviving trees remain trapped in chronic stress due to water, nutrient, salinity, and persistent pest pressure, thereby compounding the yield gap over decades.  

At Permia, our solution closes that gap with a commercially proven, multi-sensor platform that turns raw signals into decisions, at plantation scale and down to the individual tree.  

We fuse three data streams: 

• Satellite and drone image, for plantation-scale mapping and detection plus high-resolution canopy health assessment ;  

• A patented bioacoustic device that senses hydration and detects trunk pests early, including red palm weevil, before visible symptoms appear (one single sensor can diagnose across ~1,000 trees, moving tree to tree); 

• Field data, through ground-truth labels from agronomists and on-the-ground inspections, to validate detections, continuously improve model accuracy, and ensure recommendations match operational reality. 

The combination of image and sound is our wedge, but the platform is the product. Farmers do not need “more data”, they need prioritized actions: which blocks are deteriorating, which trees need inspection, where to intervene first, and how to allocate labor safely and efficiently. Our models convert multi-modal signals into tree-level actions that increase yield, reduce inputs, and make monitoring scalable, rather than a headcount problem.  

The result is strong customer economics. Across paying customers and field outcomes, we see a 10x ROI for farmers based on saving trees or increasing yields, with a 1–5 month payback period. 

Defensibility comes from compounding advantage: three years of high-frequency multi-sensor data, more than 4 million individual trees monitored, proprietary sensor fusion models, and workflow integrations that embed Permia into day-to-day operations, not a once-a-quarter report.  

Why this matters now, especially for the Middle East: palms sit at the intersection of food security, water scarcity, and climate resilience. The UAE’s date sector faces irrigation pressure, salinity, extreme heat, and pest risk, while needing productivity gains without expanding land. Permia’s approach enables earlier detection, targeted intervention, and measurable improvements aligned with national food security and AI adoption priorities.  

From the start, the Middle East has been part of our roadmap. After a successful trial in Qatar, the FoodTech Challenge offers the opportunity to establish our regional hub in Abu Dhabi. The prize funding will allow us to hire 11 people in year one for aerial image collection, image processing, research and development on sensors and IoT and business development. This will help us create what we call 21st century agriculture jobs. Just as importantly, the Challenge provides access to universities, government stakeholders and research institutes, enabling us to localize our technologies for the region’s environment and farming practices. 

Our work is grounded in culture, people, and practical application. Technology only matters if farmers can use it. Through AI, image, sound, and field data, we aim to support growers, strengthen food security, and sustainably unlock the true potential of palm agriculture, beginning in the Middle East and extending worldwide. 

 Efrem De Paiva

CEO of Permia Sensing