Both AgTech startups and strategics are moving products that leverage automation or biotechnology out of development and into the marketplace. These innovations were on display on the expo floor and in panel discussions during The Spoon's AgTech event at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas last week.
For automation and robotics, from autonomous sprayers to robotic nursery planting, on-farm automation is gaining momentum. A whole crop of AgTech startups are introducing automated solutions, often integrated with AI or big data, as are legacy agricultural machinery companies like Kubota and John Deere.
Labor, the top concern for producers, is pushing demand for on-farm solutions. Plus, with an average farmer age of 58 years old in the U.S., coupled with potential immigration policy changes, labor constraints are likely to increase.
Pest pressures, fungal diseases, and weather changes also are driving new autonomous solutions. Interestingly, hybrid solutions are being introduced to the market by firms like John Deere, giving farmers the opportunity to have manual control of a tractor or other piece of equipment for certain activities, while automating more routine tasks.
Major berry producer Driscoll's sees the economic reality in different regions driving the adoption of autonomous or hybrid machinery, with the high-cost labor markets of California, England, & Australia leading the way.
"The challenge is to get independent growers to adopt your technology, as growers tend to be independent thinkers," Scott Kumar, Driscoll's SVP of Global R&D, said in the "Robot Farm 2050: A Look at Robotics & The Future of Farming" panel. He estimated that 30% of his company's growers are using robots and/or automation today.
Innovations in biotechnology also stand to address labor pressures.
"Gene editing has an interesting role to play in making changes to plant architecture to make plants more amenable to innovations in automation," said Sarah Evanega, VP, Business Development, for Okanagan Specialty Fruits on the "Gene Editing and the Future Farm" Panel.
Plus, important crops, especially tropical crops like bananas, coffee, and cacao, stand to be dramatically impacted by climate change. New advanced breeding techniques, like CRISPR, are positioned to address these changes by accelerating the development of new varieties of these crops with beneficial traits.
"From a climate resilience standpoint, with gene editing, you don’t have to make the compromises that a farmer typically has to make – you can increase productivity and address disease resistance, said Ian Miller, COO of Pairwise, on the same panel.
Animal agriculture stands to benefit from gene editing, as well.
"We need reproductive technologies to address broad application in animals," said Jon Oatley, Assoc. Dean and Professor at Washington State University.
All-in-all, these emerging technologies are moving out of the development phase and into commercial markets, which will fuel adoption of these new AgTech innovations over time.