Technology

[ad_1] For a specialty crop grower, selecting the next season’s seeds is a big deal. Most market gardeners and other enterprise-level operators receive a massive stack of seed catalogs each year. They pour over them meticulously, dogearing page after page bearing promising seed varieties. To give a sense of these tomes, one catalog offers over […]

[ad_1] Gaby Novakovic is the lead organizer of the OnRamp Agriculture Conference that’s set to take place virtually on July 9. We caught up with her to find out they pivoted what was going to be a physical event into a virtual one that’s focused on helping startups start valuable conversations with potential investors and […]

[ad_1] A welcome impact from the Covid-19 pandemic has been clearer skies and returning wildlife to usually polluted areas after industry, transport systems, and more shut down across the world, reducing carbon emissions. Today marks two months since the UK’s electricity industry last used coal; the longest period since the Industrial Revolution began more than […]

[ad_1] Tongcheng Life, an online portal that facilitates group-buying of fresh produce, has raised $200 million in Series C funding. Half of the capital came from Joyy, a NASDAQ-listed, Guangzhou-based tech company that runs several social media and gaming platforms including short video site YY.com, popular livestreaming app Huya, and Southeast Asia’s Bigo. Co-leading the […]

[ad_1] There are many different technologies being offered to farmers to tackle everything from more efficient input use, different categories of inputs, new sensors to monitor conditions, robotics, and alternative marketplaces. But these innovations are only as good as farmers’ willingness to adopt them en masse.  “Over the course of their careers, farmers shoulder much […]

[ad_1] Editor’s Note: Kevin McKernan is founder and chief science officer of Medicinal Genomics, a startup working on cannabis technology including safety testing capabilities. He was the first to sequence the cannabis genome. He is the former Team Leader for Research and Development at The Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research during the Human Genome Project. […]

[ad_1] Toxins, molds and pathogens are responsible for 500 million tons of food spoilage, which causes nearly $250 billion in food losses and 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. “By the time you throw away that tomato in your fridge, it has already led to significant emissions,” Dan White, co-founder of Clean Crop Technologies, tells […]

[ad_1] Microbial crop inputs are gaining interest. From seed coatings to soil amendments, there are a number of approaches startups are taking to test the limits of these alternatives to traditional chemical inputs. For Andes Ag, however, the future of microbial inputs isn’t so much about coatings or sprays, it’s about seeds. “Traditional bacterial seed […]

[ad_1] Editor’s Note: Seana Day is a Partner at Better Food Ventures and The Mixing Bowl, with 15 years of finance, M&A, and technology experience. She is the author of the 2019 Agtech Landscape and Livestock Tech Landscape. Seana now lives in Turlock, the heart of California’s Ag land. Here is her first farm tech market map. The agtech sector is expanding each year, […]

[ad_1] Southeast Asian order-anything app Grab has launched a raft of initiatives aimed at brining more small and medium-sized merchants into its ecosystem, including farmers and agrifood vendors, amid supply chain disruption and other knock-on effects from Covid-19. Grab started out as a ride-hailing service, but it has since expanded into myriad other services including […]

[ad_1] The homepage of the American-Israeli investment firm Arieli Capital offers a quote from Seth Godin, a blogger and podcaster: “There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas,” believes Godin, “what’s missing is the will to execute them.” Few would dispute that growing fish or strawberries in a desert is a remarkable idea, even in 2020. One […]

[ad_1] The US animal health market generates around $10 billion in sales each year, according to the Animal Health Institute, and makes up roughly one-third of the global market. It is on pace to reach $73.6 billion by 2027. Although increased spending on pets has been a big driver of sales growth, an increase in […]

[ad_1] Editor’s Note: Scott Nichols is the founder and principal of Food’s Future. Food’s Future’s mission is to accelerate the expansion of responsible aquaculture. At Food’s Future, Scott works to create a food future filled with a plentiful supply of healthful and delicious fish. He does this by assisting businesses that create aquaculture feeds, raise fish […]

[ad_1] BioLumic, a New Zealand-based agtech startup developing UV light recipes to apply to seeds and seedlings to promote crop yield increases, has hired a new CEO. After an official recruitment process, the company – which boasts ex-Bayer Crop Science head of research and development Adrian Percy on its board – picked Steve Sibulkin, the […]

[ad_1] Microsoft has launched a support scheme for Indian agtech startups, to help them “build industry-specific solutions, scale, and grow with access to deep technology, business, and marketing resources.” The program, named Microsoft for Agritech Startups, will offer a range of tech and business tools to early-stage Indian companies operating in the space. The program […]