According to an article by Andy Ober of insideindianabusiness.com, a Brazil-based digital agriculture company has big plans in West Lafayette. Solinftec says it will establish its U.S. headquarters at the Purdue Research Park and create more than 300 jobs by 2022. The company provides Internet of Things-based technology to provide farmers with real-time data. Purdue President Mitch Daniels says the move is the latest evidence of the school “becoming a world center of precision agriculture.”
The company says it will hire in positions including sales, information technology, data scientists, engineers and agronomists beginning early next year. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. says the new positions are expected to offer salaries above the state and Tippecanoe County averages.
The company’s platform gives farmers information about the status and productivity on their machines. The technology is already active on more than 16 million acres in Latin America by more than 100,000 daily users. Solinftec says the West Lafayette facility will allow it to meet increased demand in North America and enable the company to expand its offerings.
The IEDC is offering the company up to $6 million in conditional tax credits based on the job creation plans. West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County are also supporting the project.
The announcement at Indiana Agbiosciences Summit comes just weeks after Boston-based seed development and plant breeding company Inari said it would expand into the Purdue Research Park. The company is opening what it calls the world’s first Seed Foundry at the complex, with plans to house about to workers.