TEKFARM seeks global agtech solutions for Australia's grains sector & More News Here

Grain is a thriving trade in Australia. It’s the nation’s second-largest agricultural subsector by worth, accounting for 27% of whole gross worth of ag manufacturing. In 2020-2021, there have been 22,500 Australian grains farmers, who propelled the nation to its highest yields on document for wheat, barley, canola, chickpeas, discipline peas, and lupins. Over the identical interval, the gross worth of manufacturing of the grains trade was A$13.8 billion ($9.62 billion), with 36.5 billion metric tons of grains exported abroad value A$12.4 billion ($8.65 billion).

To safe these spectacular positive aspects and bolster the trade for the longer term, the Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC) – an Australian government-linked statutory physique that invests in analysis, improvement and extension to drive the grain trade’s productiveness and profitability – has partnered with Farmers2Founders to launch TEKFARM Global: a brand new scouting program geared toward bringing the world’s greatest agtech solutions to Australia to spice up the grains sector to new heights and create new business alternatives.

Fernando Felquer, head of enterprise improvement and commercialization, GRDC tells AFN that Australia’s grains sector presents a variety of potential alternatives and benefits for worldwide agtech ventures.

“The GRDC is currently committed to a five-year Research, Development & Extension Plan [RD&E] for 2018 to 2023, designed to create enduring profitability for Australian grain growers. The current key industry priorities and the commitment to RD&E creates a significant opportunity for investment in innovation, and makes the Australian grains sector a perfect launchpad for international agtech ventures,” he says.

Key funding targets beneath RD&E — which will even be focal factors for the TEKFARM Global program — will middle on improvements and applied sciences beneath the next aims:

• Improving yield and yield stability. Maintaining yield stability beneath the impacts of varied environmental components is a vital consideration in limiting publicity to manufacturing danger and underpins stability of provide. Investments on this space might contain comparatively excessive dangers and lengthy timeframes to supply.
• Maintaining and enhancing costs. Traceability and demonstrated meals security are more likely to stay key buyer necessities within the wake of Covid-19, and are anticipated to extend in significance within the short-to-medium time period. While the export of bulk commodities will stay a big a part of future Australian grain buying and selling, alternatives to vary the performance and composition of conventional commodities will underpin future will increase in demand and costs.
• Optimizing enter prices. A variety of alternatives exist that may result in incremental and transformational reductions in enter prices whereas optimizing productiveness. The problem is to establish and prioritize the incremental alternatives to match prices with manufacturing at a regional scale whereas additionally figuring out transformational alternatives on a nationwide scale.
• Reduction of post-farmgate prices. GRDC will proceed to help R&D into understanding the variables that drive provide chain prices, to tell coverage on these points. In addition, GRDC will think about transformational investments with the capability to enhance freight efficiences, in addition to growing extension packages that help growers in minimizing post-farmgate prices.
• Management of danger to maximise income and decrease losses. Risk administration that’s too conservative can restrict revenue in above-average manufacturing years, whereas approaches which can be too aggressive can expose the grower to fairness points that adversely influence revenue and future operations. In addition, grower perspective to danger is a key determinant of the pace and scale of uptake of latest expertise.

In current years, the Australian grains sector has remained secure and “the value of grains production over the five years to 2020 has remained steady despite market access challenges and seasonal conditions that reduced production” in accordance with GrainGrowers, a bunch representing Australian grain farmers. Additionally, “production is forecast to increase with a return to better seasons.”

Speaking to AFN, Chris Murphy, enterprise improvement supervisor, North, GRDC, highlights a number of priorities for the Australian grains sector that might assist ventures all for TEKFARM determine whether or not they may be the proper match, together with:

• The improvement of latest, high-value makes use of of merchandise and byproducts focused at plant-based alternate options, human well being, vitamin, and allergenicity, in addition to high-value animal feed makes use of, new industrial makes use of, and biofuels.
• Accelerated improvement of latest crop varieties that may thrive in hotter, drier climates, reminiscent of Australia’s far north.
• The creation of latest applied sciences that cut back labor prices and enhance the effectivity of repetitive, intensive duties reminiscent of seeding, fertilizing, spraying, and harvesting.
• Maintaining and enhancing the worth of Australian grain by means of differentiation based mostly on superior genetics, performance, meals security and traceability, sustainability of manufacturing, decreased downgrading, new and enhanced grain classification processes, and optimum administration of biosecurity points.
• Developing new herbicides and pesticides that cut back environmental impacts.
• Providing solutions that allow grain growers to optimize prices, improve profitability, and handle danger by means of new engineering solutions and data-informed determination making.
• Developing the capabilities and capability of the agricultural ecosystem to speed up analysis, improvement, and adoption of novel solutions.

AFN sat down with Felquer (FF), Murphy (CM), Farmers2Founders managing director Christine Pitt (CP), and GrainInnovate portfolio supervisor Robert Williams (RW) to debate the TEKFARM program and the alternatives that await worldwide agtech ventures within the Australian grains sector.

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AFN: What is the position of GRDC in supporting agtech innovation in Australia?

FF: GRDC’s objective is to spend money on RD&E to create enduring profitability for Australian grain growers. Our innovation technique is geared toward delivering extra influence to grower profitability by means of concentrating on and help of the agtech startup innovation ecosystem.

We have numerous packages which intention to deal with totally different unmet wants within the innovation course of. Those initiatives embrace help for startups to take part in accelerator packages throughout the prevailing Australian agtech accelerator capability, in addition to with GrainInnovate, a A$50 million [$34.9 million] enterprise capital fund run in collaboration with Artesian. In addition, GRDC actively participates within the global Australian agtech market, GrowAg, in collaboration with different comparable analysis companies throughout Australia’s ag area.

AFN: How does the TEKFARM program facilitate these alternatives for worldwide agtech ventures within the Australian grains market?

CM: The TEKFARM Global program was created in collaboration with GRDC to offer modern, worldwide tech ventures with the chance to attach, collaborate, and scale new applied sciences within the Australian market. The preliminary pilot of the TEKFARM program will run in mid-2022 and can present worldwide agtech ventures with the chance to study Australian market situations, construct a neighborhood crew, and achieve entry to infrastructure to determine a enterprise in Australia.

They’ll additionally be capable of connect with trade and analysis companions and achieve publicity to traders together with GrainInnovate; undertake supported tech trials, value profit analyses, and refine their worth proposition; entry facilitated introductions to end-user prospects and construct route-to-market through buyer validation; and develop advertising and marketing and commercialization property and construct an enhanced profile within the Australian market.

CP: The global agtech corporations that we’re working with discover that the TEKFARM  program helps to easy the way in which for market entry into the area because it offers a ‘crawl, walk, run approach’ to the market and permits confidence in all steps of the method alongside the way in which.

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Farmers2Founders delivers Australia’s largest and most complete pathway for creating and scaling new agtech ventures and commercializing new applied sciences alongside the whole agrifood and fiber worth chain. We function nationally throughout all sectors and we’re very energetic in supporting and constructing the agtech and meals innovation ecosystem. Our companions embrace authorities, trade our bodies, analysis organizations, traders, and — most significantly — farmers, who we place on the middle of the innovation course of.

TEKFARM is an thrilling new initiative that we launched in 2021 and we’re already seeing outcomes as we work with agtech corporations and their prospects to speed up the adoption of latest applied sciences throughout Australia’s farming companies and agricultural worth chains. We assist make Australia a fantastic place for quick rising global agtech ventures to do enterprise.

AFN: What are the stand-out options or differentiating components of the Australian grains sector?

FF: The Australian sector is characterised by the predominance of winter cereals, produced throughout a large space in numerous distinct agroecological zones with differing local weather, soil traits and farming programs. Recently, robust export market demand along with entry to improved varieties and farming programs has pushed the growth of pulse manufacturing, significantly chickpeas in northern Australia and lentils in southern Australia. Australia exports a big quantity of grains every year and demand from new and present markets is growing.

AFN: What is the Australian grains sector actually good at, that ought to appeal to worldwide curiosity?

FF: Australian grain growers are specialists in overcoming challenges and are by their very nature innovators. Farming programs in Australia are very totally different and distinctive attributable to difficult environmental situations reminiscent of local weather, climate patterns and soil varieties. Grains growers are consistently trying for modern, sensible solutions to beat farm constraints and notice alternatives. Because Australian growers perceive the worth of fixed innovation, they’re keen adopters of latest expertise and we need to encourage them to hyperlink with worldwide startups.

AFN: How can expertise increase the sustainability of the grains sector in Australia?

CM: Australian grain growers are amongst probably the most aggressive on the planet. To stay sustainable, aggressive and worthwhile, the grains sector wants to have the ability to entry improvements from throughout the globe. In the agtech area synthetic intelligence, ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT), digital data, distant sensing, fintech and different applied sciences, are all being explored as instruments to maximise income, and consequently guarantee sustainability. If we develop the definition of “Agtech”, biotech and crop genetics even have a powerful potential to sustainably create worth for Australian growers.

RW: From a broader trade lens, agriculture is poised to be one of many subsequent, if not the following, massive drivers of the Australian financial system and GDP. Through scaled funding in, and engagement with expertise suppliers, the Australian grains trade has the potential to extend farm productiveness, create new jobs, maximize our meals exports globally, and export new agrifood technological developments abroad. GrainInnovate, together with the opposite initiatives GRDC have established to help agrifood tech innovation, are enjoying a number one position in facilitating scaled funding in, and engagement with, related expertise suppliers.

AFN: Why ought to worldwide agtech companies think about trialing and commercializing their applied sciences within the Australian grains sector?

FF: It is about fast-tracking solutions for the advantage of each agtech companies and grain growers. We recognise that the contribution of start-ups to the innovation ecosystem is growing steadily in Australia and overseas, utilizing new applied sciences in purposes throughout numerous industries. Our intention is to draw scalable, high-growth potential startups which can be growing novel companies and merchandise that may adapt effectively to Australia’s grains-specific constraints.

AFN: What does the agtech funding panorama appear to be in Australia?

RW: Australian agtech-focused VC funds and corporations reminiscent of GrainInnovate-Artesian, Tenacious, and Mandalay VC, plus vertical-agnostic, however with a powerful curiosity in agtech, reminiscent of Main Sequence. In addition, corporates and household places of work have began to interact within the agtech area. Australian agtech startups have additionally attracted curiosity from massive global company and VC funds reminiscent of Cargill, Microsoft’s M12, TIME Ventures, Acre VC, and Ajax Strategies. See Loam Bio’s and Regrow’s current funding rounds for instance.

AFN: Why don’t extra worldwide companies understand Australia as a very good place to undertake agricultural trialing and commercialization?

CM: Many do, however components reminiscent of distance from worldwide innovators and startups, market dimension, and consciousness are all points. GRDC is dedicated to attracting extra worldwide innovators to Australia. Our Herbicide Innovation Partnership with Bayer is an instance of GRDC working in shut collaboration with worldwide companies in an effort to overcome a few of these perceived limitations for the event and deployment of services and products within the Australian market.

AFN: How can we make it simpler for worldwide organizations to interact with the grains trade to undertake new trials and commercialization alternatives?

FF: To help agtech startups, GRDC launched a number of initiatives over the previous two years. These embrace the GrainInnovate enterprise capital fund, Growers as Innovators, TEKFARM, and the GRDC Accelerator Program. This innovation technique is about extending the vary of organizations with which we companion. Our intention is to focus on a various vary of companions and applied sciences, which we’re assured will ship transformational worth to growers. While the pathway may be totally different to the way in which by which GRDC historically invests most of its RD&E funds, the intent and outcomes stay aligned to the company’s RD&E Plan.

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RW: One of the important thing and distinctive options of GrainInnovate is that the Fund has been established to spend money on world main agrifood tech startups that could be positioned both domestically, or internationally. GrainInnovate leverages Artesian’s broad companion community to establish and supply engagement alternatives for worldwide organizations, by means of its relationships with global incubator/accelerators, analysis institutes, trade and company companions, and worldwide enterprise capital funds and co-investors.

AFN: Is TEKFARM solely trying for mature agtech companies which can be already profitable commercially or can earlier stage ventures seeking to undertake tech trials apply?

CM: Both are of curiosity, so long as they will reveal that they’re aligned to the priorities of Australian grain growers.

RW: Furthermore, from a GrainInnovate perspective, the fund has the power to think about each early-stage and scale-up stage corporations for funding. This offers the chance for each trial and funding partnership alternatives related to worldwide agrifood tech startups endeavor Australian market improvement actions.

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