Our Week in Agri-Tech

Our Stakeholder Group is so important to us to help shape our thinking and our future activities. Thanks to Richardson Milling UK for hosting our latest meeting, which saw really helpful input from farming, academia, agri-tech entrepreneurship and commercial innovation. The latest in our “micro-learning” series about intellectual property in agri-tech rolled off the press, courtesy of Carsten Reinhard from J A Kemp. Who knew edible fungi are also subject to Plant Variety Rights? (ICYMI catch-up via the recording in your Member Stash). Farmer-focused knowledge exchange – our Farmer First Innovation Group this month talked about crop disease management and diagnostics, featuring talks from Niab, Vivent Biosignals and Outbreak Labs. Data-driven Life Cycle Analysis – you’ve gotta measure it to manage – and report it…..also available on your Member Stash to hear from Gavin Milligan, and case studies from Ponda and Recycled Crop Nutrients A warm welcome to Soleni Systems Ltd – helping with project management of complex agri-tech innovations Also joining us this week is the STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council – bringing physics, space, computational science into agri-tech (for example tracking the movements of nutrients and water through soil and even living plants). And some STOP PRESS news about funding available to help Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Food Standards Agency use engineering biology more effective – from vet vaccines to eDNA and water quality - £200k contracts up for grabs. What a week – we need a weekend now to recover from all that!

🪟 🫣 The Sustainable Farming Incentive window opened – and shut – on Tuesday….it felt a bit of a manic panic way to allocate funding to land-owners to deliver environmental land management, but let’s hope for some major impact on the ground. 🎠 The World Agri-Tech Summit was interspersed with an evening Reception we hosted with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. The Agri-Tech Carousel format enabled companies to showcase their tech, ranging from biostimulants (SugaROx), to herd improvement (AgriSense, crop disease diagnostics (Optigene), restoring disease resistance to plant varieties (Resurrect Bio) and measuring microscale movement for fertility and particles in agrifood and labs (Dyneval). 💸 Bramble Partners had some exciting news for our industry with a retailer partnership to bring fresh, supply-chain-focused investment into the sector. The Tesco Agri-tech Challenge final saw a line-up of awesome early and later stage businesses all aiming to positively impact the supply chain. Check out the winner of the early stage category at #REAP2026. 📣 Finally, a shout-out to the amazing things I sadly had to miss this week – the Precision Breeding Conference at the John Innes Centre, the Poster Showcase hosted by the Norwich Research Park and a huge congrats 🥂 to Harper Adams University on your 125th birthday. Genuinely gutted not to have been able to be at all of the above...

This week:👏 A big thanks to everyone who focused on finance with us - whether you were an investor, an early stage venture, or just came to listen and network. With fabulous keynotes which stretched our brains about the investable future of the food system, we discovered big opportunities for the new “biological intelligence” layer…. Plus 10 early stage ventures in agrifood, showcasing their solutions from frost protection to improved nutrition in peas, innovation to control cabbage stem flea beetle and water retaining soil additions. 📣 A warm welcome to new member Concept to Commercial who officially launched yesterday at the event - helping agri-food innovation businesses win funding and build commercial engines🙌 Also to new member Cytotrait, taking a new approach to precision-breeding. Plants and animals don’t just have one #genome, they have loads more DNA in tiny compartments in cells (chloroplasts and mitochondria if you’re interested). So huge potential to apply new genomic techniques in these other genomes. 🪳 🍎 Thinking all things stinking – namely the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, an invasive crop pest – hitching a ride into the UK via an unexpected source. Niab is leading the UK’s effort in locating and mapping their spread through its work at East Malling. Plus we headed out into the orchards to hear collaboration with tech companies – not least FOTENIX, OptiGene, SOIL MOISTURE SENSE LTD and Delta-T Devices.🚜 A sense of the mood music around technology and investment among farmers with the McKinsey & Company's biennial Global Farmer Outlook report - a new blog about this landed this week on the Agri-TechE website. 🔔 And REAP registrations are ramping up.....have you bought your ticket yet?

👉 We’re growing the Agri-TechE team…..are you – or someone you know – our next new recruit? https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/opportunity/team-support-administrator/📣 Final call to “Focus on Finance” with us next week to learn more about different financing options to start and scale your #agritech company and hear from the latest batch of entrepreneurs. Plus SyndetAI will be helping all our start-ups identify the hot (and not-so-hot) spots in their businesses using their proprietary platform. 🔔 Prepping for the new Sustainable Farming Incentive window opening……at some point…..after Sept 22nd……? Discussing this with the land agents, ecologists and ag business consultants from Brown&Co LLP at their drinks reception at Queens College. 🤝 Claim your member discount to attend the World Agri-Tech Summit in London.🙌 New members featured this week are all about herd and plant health:🐄 💻 farmdrive's livestock management platform helps manage the beef supply chain, logging performance, health treatments, compliance records and profit margins🌱 CEON is all about plant nutrition and soil improvement with their range of fertilisers, soil care products, and biostimulants. A warm welcome to you both….and more new members to welcome next week!

More money, making the most of membership and maize…. Agri-TechE’s weekly vlog is recorded alongside (an ever-dwindling) hay store.This week:🤝 Meet the right people, increase your visibility, and grow your network and impact – we walk through how to max out your Agri-TechE membership on Tuesday 8th September at noon. Prospective members also very welcome….come and be part of the community!💷 Two new grant funds landed – the Farmer Collaboration Fund and the Small R&D Partnership competition. Together they total £43m….sitting alongside the #ADOPT grant programme as well, there is a lot of money around for innovation and collaboration.New members welcome to the ecosystem:💡 📉 If you’re a farmer looking to pay less for your energy, the digital platform developed by Multitude Advisors Ltd is worth a look.📈 And for all those wanting to advance the commercial maturity of their agri-tech innovation, check out Juster AgriConsult.Our latest episode of the #Agri-Chat podcast landed – I talked to Peter Palmer of Prodata Weather Systems about #evapotranspiration and weather sensors. Big congrats to the #BrashAg podcast on reaching your milestone, and thanks for inviting me as a guest on your 100th ep.🌦️ 🌽 And finally, deploying AI to reveal the “golden window” during the summer which causes up to half a tonne of crop to be lost for every 10mm shortfall of water.  

This week we’re about birds, biologicals, the future of farm machinery and the importance of language when talking about nature and the environment.   Read on…. 🪶 🍂 The berry bounty currently bursting forth in UK hedgerows awaits the winter bird visitors – but will it hold long enough to feed them in this “false autumn?” And the trade-off between the Government’s Drought Support Package for farmers and the impact on food and cover for over-wintering birds and insects. 🙂 🥱 From visions of bucolic scenes of local wildlife, to institutional policies and targets - words matter, according to some of the latest research. 🚜 Rabobank releases its latest update on the European farm machinery sector and we take a deeper dive into the findings in this month’s blog from Agri-TechE. 🗣️ 📆 Member catch-ups and event planning for 2027……stand by with your diaries!

In a week where the Government announced a Drought Support Package for farmers, we're calling anyone who wants to meet agritech start-ups…..Read on!☔ With just 1mm of rain falling in some parts of the Fens this week, we dive into the details of the new Support Package. Is it a drop in the ocean of what’s really needed?💷 Come and Focus on Finance with us on the 17th Sept, featuring start-up pitches plus a chance to learn about money available to grow your business and a state of the nation about the agri-tech funding landscape. We have two exhibition slots left for business support organisations – and all the start-ups we feature will receive a free investment-readiness analysis from headline event sponsor SyndetAI .🙌 The Agri-TechE network is officially “Fantastic” – or at least the list of our UK members applying to attend the Agromek trade show in Denmark is! 🤝 Collect 5 @BASIS points for the REAP2026 conference (and farmers – bag yourself a bursary to attend). Plus we have one spot for sponsorship remaining if you'd like to put your brand to one of the UK's key agri-tech conferences.And check out the Agri-Tech Week programme (19th – 23rd October)….which events will you be attending?

It’s all about the not-so-humble (and thirsty) spud, where we’ve been considering the science behind growing better potatoes and in a week where the UK’s first gene-edited crop gained regulatory approval. Plus money, the robotics revolution and a great opportunity for our Early Career Innovators. This week:🥔 🍟 Lamb Weston processes 200,000 tonnes of potatoes a year, a great example of supply chain partners supporting their growers to produce an even better crop. We've also been talking soil moisture sensors and drip irrigation as possible mitigations in these dry, hot growing conditions. 🤖 💷 Calling all revolutionary robots as £20m funding is available as part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Farming Futures R&D programme. (This week we sent our members a big funding summary of everything available right now).🍓 🏎️ When F1 meets agriculture….getting the robots to do the heavy lifting on fruit farms, with our latest new member Dynium.🎓 🚜 We have 2 FREE places up for grabs on the Farm Management Skills Programme at Harper Adams University, thanks to our partnership with the Society of Agriculture – get in touch to start your application!