CEO and founder of Terraclim, Dr Tara Southey’s love for nature, wine typicity, and research has led her on a career path that helps the agricultural industry to be more adaptable and sustainable in climate change, with regional reference. Founded on more than a decade of research and development, Tara together with Innovus Technology Transfer Office (TTO) and Stellenbosch University (SU) LaunchLab to create the SU spinout company Terraclim: a data-driven solution that houses unique integrated data resources addressing the limited accessibility to climate and terrain information to the agriculture and related sectors in the context of increased seasonal variability.
By consolidating data from multiple weather stations into a centralised database and integrating this with a higher resolution digital elevation model, Terraclim produces hourly temperature maps. These can be utilised by farmers to identify areas of climate vulnerability and adapt farming practices.
With a background in Viticulture and Oenology, Southey pursued her PhD and postdoctoral studies focusing on climate change in the wine industry but quickly became frustrated with the lack of climate data which was sparse and sporadic. At the time, accessing such data required a specific skillset to effectively ‘clean’ the data and gap fill to use it for geographical indexing. She realised the challenge farmers faced in accessing and utilising this information. This insight was the catalyst for the inception of Terraclim.
Following the severe drought in the Western Cape from 2016 – 2018, a determined Southey, in collaboration with Innovus Technology Transfer Office (TTO) and SU LaunchLab, set out to create a solution for the agricultural industry. Collaborating with the South African Wine Industry she conducted a needs analysis survey which she distributed to other researchers, farmers and consultants in 2018. At the time, the European Commission’s 2018 JRC Technical reports stated that “while much of the Southern African continent has been recovering, following heavy summer rains, from a drought caused by El Nino, Cape Town in Western Cape is still gripped by its worst drought in a century.” Recognising that climate change is inevitable, the feedback from the survey helped to determine that the most pressing needs for the agriculture industry was access to climate data and terrain information. This valuable feedback inspired Southey to develop the industry-specific tool that would revolutionise agricultural farming practices and quantify their vulnerability amidst the climate crisis.
Before it became a company, Terraclim was a flagship research project for the South African Wine Industry for four years before it became a Stellenbosch University spinout company in 2022. However, their Research and Development has expanded to include other crop types. Since the specialised function of the company is to centralise and integrate data, Terraclim also integrates 44 environmental parameters of climatal terrain which is then linked to a specific crop type to determine its viability in a certain area. What sets Terraclim apart is that its research is aligned with industry to provide adequate solutions. In this way Terraclim has become an essential resource for the local agricultural industry.
“One of my biggest challenges is having to do this alone, being the visionary without a constant sounding board for these great ideas. But I have been extremely fortunate to have such an incredible support structure at Innovus TTO as well as Brandon Paschal of SU LaunchLab”, says Southey.
She adds that “transitioning from research into the commercial space has been equally challenging with constant changes in the market, limited financial resources and general product development. But my biggest drive has been to help decision makers, which are the farmers, because they ultimately determine our food security for the future. My passion as a researcher is therefore, to use my abilities to help these farmers make better and more informed decisions.”
Being a researcher for so many years and still currently being one, Southey’s advice to other researchers is to look beyond just publishing papers. Driving research awareness and knowledge into industry is what will inform decision-makers to make necessary changes for the greater good of our society.
As a postdoctoral researcher at SU leading the South African wine industry flagship project, Tara interacts with various stakeholders from farmers to policymakers in order to perfect the Terraclim tool for managing climate change on farms. She shares that “making a global impact starts with field and farm-level insights.”