Our Week in Agri-Tech

Rounding up the Agri-TechE week on farm, courtesy of Home Farm Nacton – the 43rd Demonstrator Farm for LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming).   Also this week: -         Applications open for early stage #agritech ventures to present at our Focus on Finance event (Sept 17th – all welcome). -         All eyes looking to Groundswell Agriculture – we chat to two of our members as they make their final preparations for next week’s Regenerative Ag Festival – we’ll be there, come and see us on stand M24. -         Talking financial resilience through cyber security with other business founders thanks to EY. Yikes. 

Hazel Alpaca (newly-shorn) and I are here to tell you about Cereals, the Festival of Fresh, the next in our “Agri-Tech Meets…” series, plus the Big Announcement that UK farmers have been awaiting. This week from Agri-TechE:🕳️ My learnings from the Niab soil hole at Cereals Event (and thank you David Clarke for a great explanation about "plate-y" limestone and following the wormholes). 💭 A mantra for #agritech start-ups - when you have great tech but are innovating in a crowded field.🥗 From Cereals – to fresh produce, with the Festival of Fresh hosted by G's Group. Audit process streamlining, the rise of the robots – and a discussion about Ultra Processed Foods (link to the public dialogue report in the comments below).🚀 Agri-Tech Meets… SPACE in the next in our series of exploring the interfaces between sectors.📉 The budget for the next phase of the Sustainable Farming Incentive has been announced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs… is it going to be enough? (answers on a postcard). Also great catch-ups with Steve McLean from the UK Agri-Tech Centre, and a very valuable meeting of the Agriculture Sector Group supporting Innovate UK Business Connect.

Forecasting the weather, crop performance and pest and disease outbreaks has been peppered with rhyming slogans and old wives’ tales (DM me to discover the one about the right time to drill sugar beet - too rude for the vlog!). This week the Agri-TechE round-up is from a sugar beet field, talking about the top tech being used by British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO) to bring some science to the slogans, using AI and smart traps to detect and predict beet moth and Cerospera (leaf spot).Also this week:🖱️ Working alongside Apple  and IBM  as part of the University of East Anglia School of Computing Sciences Industry Advisory Board – what does our sector need for new computing graduates to be “Employment Ready?”🛜 An opportunity to learn about the private 5G network trial connecting up smart devices across an entire farming estate in Gloucestershire – join the Open Day where we are partnering with Overbury Enterprises. ☣️ Chemical risk management through software as a service – learning more about farmer and agronomist empowerment (within regulatory rules) from Kate Bromfield. 💷 The funding ceiling for the farmer-led ADOPT R&D grants has gone up to £200,000. Bigger projects.....more farmers involved! Well done, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Innovate UK for listening and adapting.

We’ve all wilted and dried out in the UK heatwave this week… imagine the impact on those growing high value, short-season crops such as #peonies?How much of their marketable crop was a peony grower left with this week? Answer in the video…..👏 Big thanks to the team at Niab for a great event, where we talked precision breeding, and learning how crop #genetics might influence the microbial communities living around plant roots, and airborne detection of yellow rust. 🧬 Learning what a pangenome is and why understanding the one for wheat can unlock greater breeding insights, thanks to the work underway by Rachel Rusholme Pilcher at the Earlham Institute.🦠 With the rise of microbial crop products, what are the rules about patenting #biologicals? Ian MacLeod of J A Kemp is on hand to guide you through it.📣 The next in the series of #AgriChat has landed, where I discuss the importance of an independent national capability around spray technology research and validation with Philip Carpenter of DE SANGOSSE . 🗞️ And a newsletter landed - did you receive yours/ We had lots of policy updates in this one!

Opening this week’s round-up with apologies to Gerry Rafferty (and to anyone too young to appreciate the appalling pastiche of a 1970s pop sone). This week:❓ Are we a "Well-Adapted UK" when it comes to climate risk? The 4th independent review landed this week with some stern recommendations as to how Government should support farmers as their farming models evolve. #citrus and #chickpea, anyone?🙏 A big thank you to all involved in our "Introduction to Agri-tech" event, not least Agrii for hosting us, and the British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN) and GK Strategy for their support. 👋 A warm welcome to three of our latest new members:Map My Crop an on-farm and supply chain platform to help manage multiple crops, platforms and on-farm interventions - AND help you calculate your ROI. Roboverse Reply UK - cracking the inter-operability challenge around drones and robots from different manufacturers. Astell Bio (by Astell Scientific Ltd.) - safe decontamination of effluent, using heat and pressure. And I learn more about the 5-year transformation plan underway at Rothamsted Research​

The Agri-TechE round-up features our discussions on crop health solutions, a new UK offering for on-farm R&D and we’ve entered the world of podcasts. And you’ll learn what the Medici Effect is and why it’s important for #agritech.🚜 Our first on-farm “Demo-Day” – showcasing technology solutions for soils and water management at Elveden Farms Ltd📣 We launched Season 2 of our #AgriChat podcast!First episode is “SPS101” with CropLife UK, to coincide with this week's Kings Speech – “it’s more than a trade deal – it’s a negotiation of GB’s agricultural policy.” (Find it wherever you get your podcasts, as they say!)Two more podcasts recorded this week, including with DE SANGOSSE with MD Philip Carpenter sharing his views on the critical importance of retaining UK national capability around researching and validating spray technologies. Watch this space.🙌 Attending the opening of the very inspiring Dyson Farming Research Centre – check out the story and interview with MD Daniel Cross on our website. A new national resource to test, trial and validate new tech on farm and at scale.💪 Keeping crops healthy with use of biology with chemistry – we talk to Mark Waltham, CEO of Certis Belchim about prioritising plant health for resilience.🗣️ Discussing the State of the Nation – and beyond – with Bayer’s UK MD, Kate Connors.⚡ Growing bioenergy feedstocks in the most regenerative way possible - at the Agricultural Advisory Board of Future Biogas❗ And don’t forget the “Introduction to Agri-tech” event at Throw’s Farm next week, kindly hosted by Agrii. Register here: https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/civicrm/event/info/?reset=1&id=27317

Friday round up from Agri-TechE next to the lions in Trafalgar Square – not quite #agritechThis week we’ve been out an about a lot….-           You can take the woman out of the lab, (and wait X0 years!) but you can’t take the lab out of the woman! Grace O Gorman and I did a double act on all things #agritech at the London Lab Live event at the Excel. -           Continuing the lab theme – last night was the lovely Royal Society’s annual “Lab to Riches” dinner, our annual get together as part of being on the RS Science, Industry and Translation committee.-           Taking our Early Career Innovators cohort to Fischer Farms to see soil-less, controlled environment growing in action. -           Check out this month’s Member Spotlight – MTC who, with WMG, are delivering the £13M AgriScale programme and we share their thoughts about this exciting programme. (And if you want advice on whether this is the right scheme for you, Tatton Consulting is giving a free session to Agri-TechE members). -           Speaking of our members, welcome to two of our latest new joiners:o  DexLab Consulting – helping farmers navigate the transition to using AI in your businesso  Pollinatework – using their “Sensibee” camera technology and computer vision to identify beneficial and pest insects -           We’ve had lovely feedback about our new Agri-Tech Extracts which lands in members’ Inboxes on a Friday - a 1 min read of what’s hot in the sector this week. Today’s was a goodie, if we say so ourselves!

We’re buzzzzzing after a great week where the Agri-TechE round up is from among the apple blossom, as we’re thinking #pollination. A line-up of tech companies walked us through not just pollination monitoring  @agrisound5776  but also bird ID – and, hot news – moth ID WilderSensing, soil organic carbon monitoring  @DownforceTechnologies  and a new high-tech approach to mapping “species interaction networks”  @newcastleuni  And we reflect on Rob Bradburne’s comments on the Land Use Framework in his role as Chief Scientist of the  @EnvironmentAgencyTV Member catch ups with  @Cambridgeconsultants  ,  @CropLifeUK  ,  @cambridgeuniversity  and  @syngenta  … work has started on the new BioSTaR building – their new 9,500m2, 3 storey purpose-designed facility for 21st Century bio-based research at Jealott’s Hill. £100m into UK agricultural research – cause for celebration!Thanks to our latest Stakeholder Group cohort – great to get your views and hear your perspectives from your parts of the industry – from farming, to research, processing, investment and agronomy. Hope you enjoyed this week’s Evolve newsletter - if you don’t receive it and would like to you can sign up here: https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/civicrm/profile/create/?gid=32&reset=1