Outside Agriculture Investors: Blessing or Curse?
While a number of outside investors have been great assets to our industry, many others have been a net negative for agriculture, writes Jim Budzynski.
Crop Protection: Biologicals vs Chemicals?
Chemical pesticides are under increasing scrutiny from consumers and regulators; biopesticides can provide an alternative or supplement to these traditional chemical pesticides, write Spencer Maughan and Kieran Furlong.
BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Brazil’s First Agtech Accelerator Program Pulse Seeking Startups
The country's first agtech program is sponsored by Raízen, Brazil’s largest producer of sugarcane ethanol and third-largest energy company, along with SP Ventures and NXTP Labs.
BREAKING: SoftBank Invests in Largest Ever Agtech Deal, a $200m Series B for Indoor Ag Startup
SoftBank has invested in Plenty, a vertical farming startup in California, to help the company expand into new markets and crops.
Motorleaf’s Monk on Priorities and Challenges of Being an AI Startup in Indoor Ag
We caught up with Ally Monk, CEO of motorleaf, a few months after the business raised a $1.1m seed round of funding, to get an update on how the business is progressing.
UK’s Cornwall Establishes £10m Agritech Funding Opportunity for Southwest Region
As England’s only officially designated ‘Less Developed Region’, the area has received grant support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and a range of local and national development partners.
Women in Agtech: MicroGen Biotech’s Xuemei Germaine
This is the first profile in a special series that spotlights women entrepreneurs in agtech globally and follows on from an earlier feature entitled Where Are All the Women in Agtech?
Congress Wades into Farm Data Ownership Debate
Last week, the US House of Representatives Agriculture Committee held a hearing on agriculture technology and data utilization in preparation for the next Farm Bill.
Ag Industry Brief: Agtech Startups Win Big at AI Competition, Adapt-N Reachs 1m Nitrogen Recommendations, more
Hortau was a finalist in the Best AI Product in Agriculture category along with ag robotics company Abundant Robotics. Ag data startup Prospera won best AI product in agriculture, as well.
EXCLUSIVE: Commercial Grasshopper Farmer Hargol Foodtech Raises $600k Seed Round
According to the founder, Hargol is the only active, commercial-scale grasshopper farm in the world and consumer products customers are clamoring to get this traditional protein source.
Indian Dairy IoT Technology Stack Stellapps Raises Series A
Stellapps offers data collection and analytics to every piece of the dairy supply chain with the aim of improving the productivity, and quality of milk, and producing transparent data both for and about the dairy industry.
More than Robotics is Needed to Solve Farm Labor Shortage
Though robotics are more and more visible in the fields and in the media, the labor shortage will need to be addressed by both industry and government if food production is to stay on course.
RML Agtech: India’s Farmers Business Network?
RML Agtech is hoping to alleviate some of the pressures faced by India's farmers with its multi-function, online agtech platform with some similarities to American startup Farmers Business Network.
Olam Creates Agtech Platform to Connect with Smallholder Farmers in its Supply Chain
For a large, global agribusiness operating across continents and agricultural commodities like Olam International, accessing detailed information about the people and operations supplying the business, is a struggle.
Sensor Skepticism at Forbes AgTech Summit
It was notable at this year’s conference that farmers, startups, and other stakeholders all seemed to be on the same page about sensors.
Land O’Lakes Hopes to Boost Animal-Based Dairy with Startup Accelerator in Face of Alternative Competition
The cooperative hopes that the accelerator will encourage and nurture innovation in dairy products, particularly relevant in the face of growing competition from dairy alternatives.
EXCLUSIVE: Australia’s First Agritech Accelerator Fills First Cohort with Precision Ag, Livestock and Home Grow Tech
SproutX, the first agritech accelerator in Australia, has accepted 11 startups into its first cohort
BREAKING: NewLeaf Raises $24m Series C, Doubling Funding for Next Gen Biologicals
Distribution of the product will focus on the US, Canada, and Argentina, where NewLeaf has been successfully piloting the product for three years.
Ag Industry Brief: Cargill Partners with Feed Analysis Tech Startup, Crop Enhancement Expands Team, Milk Wars Wage On, more
Cargill has been relatively quiet in the agtech startup space but has partnered with an Israeli startup on a real-time forage analysis platform for dairy farmers.
Connected Country Seeks to Digitize the Australian Farm With Local Network as Internet Struggles Continue
Founded as a joint venture between Discovery Ag, an ag data startup founded by Australian ag retailer Delay Agribusiness, and National Narrowband Network Co (NNNCo), Connected Garden has started to roll out a rural internet of things.