who is Green Roots?
who we are
Green Roots is a science-based consulting group that delivers soil, water, and crop management solutions to enhance soil-plant-human health. It is powered by cutting edge scientific and technological breakthroughs in precision agriculture, field of fertilizers, water use, and Agri-smart apps. Application of emerging and proprietary disruptive technologies to connect people, businesses and deliver training and guidance underlines our culture and core values. We are scale neutral: helping subsistence to commercial farmers to succeed.
B.K. Singh is the co-founder of Green Roots Consultants, a consulting firm dedicated to providing local solutions to global challenges in agricultural production, natural resource management, and human capacity development.
Dr. Singh is a former professor of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition at EARTH University in Costa Rica. He earned his M.Sc. in Agrochemistry from PFU, Moscow, and his Ph.D. in Soil Science from the University of Florida. He joined EARTH University in 1990 along with the first cohort of pioneering students.
He was one of the lead scientists in the MasterCard Foundation project to develop a Global Master’s in Health and Sustainable Development, a principal investigator in the Biofuels Project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, a lead research scientist in the Multinational Project on Drug Design for Chagas Disease in partnership with NASA, and the coordinator of the Lemelson Foundation project to promote invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship in academic institutions and rural communities.
In 2017, Dr. Singh served as an expert witness, successfully defending the Government of Costa Rica in the UNCITRAL arbitration in Washington, D.C.
Professor Singh has provided training and conducted international workshops on soil and plant nutrition for the past 30 years. He has developed, registered, and introduced more than 25 products into international markets to improve soil and plant health, water purification, and public sanitation.
In 2020, Dr. Singh founded Ag Tech, which offers international market products based on photonics and nanotechnology. Currently, Mr. Singh serves as an international judge for the WEGE Prize at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University, which promotes the circular economy.
Dr. Johan Perret is co-founder of Green Roots and professor of Soil Management and Precision Agriculture at EARTH University, Costa Rica. He is the founder and Director of the Precision Agriculture Center 2016-2023.
His focus has been on sustainable soil management and efficient use of fertilizers and water in agriculture. Prof. Perret uses innovative technologies such as Hyperspectral Artificial Intelligence to determine soil and foliar nutrients combined with real-time field diagnosis sensors (pH, soil moisture, compaction, salinity, chlorophyll sensors, etc..) for soil mapping. This creates the scientific and quantitative basis allowing “site-specific” optimized decision making which in turns lead to a cheaper and more environmentally friendly agriculture.
Dr. Perret has developed several precision agriculture techniques to determine “hot spots” in production systems, such as areas with nutritional deficiencies, problems of water deficit, low plant density, problems waterlogging, and critical areas of erosion. Dr. Perret has been working for more than a decade on new machine learning algorithms to predict soil fertility and soil health using hyperspectral signatures. He gives several talks and consultations each year on topics of precision agriculture, plant nutrition and fertilization, and sustainable soil management and conservation.
He has over 25 years of experience in training and has conducted workshops internationally. He has advised over 35 theses in the area of soil best management practices and fertility, soil mapping and precision agriculture, plant nutrition & environmental quality. Dr. Perret has authored or coauthored over 65 publications (scientific papers, extension bulletins, reports, popular articles and other media). Professor Perret earned his Ph.D. at McGill University in Canada in 1998 (Honors / CSAE Thesis Award in 1999).
