Aligning Interests in Agtech

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

There’s a common tale in agricultural technology that millions of dollars get spent developing products that farmers either don’t want, can’t use, or can’t afford. So why don’t companies get potential farmer customers involved earlier, maybe even as investors? That’s a question ag entrepreneur and podcaster Hannah Senior is asking.

Senior… “One of the things I see is that farmers themselves often aren't in a position to feel confident investing. And a lot of producer organizations will invest in the research, but not the companies that then go on to commercialize that research. And it seems to me that they might also be in a position to experiment with some of these different ways of doing things. Not least because one of the ways they can get a return on their investment is not just on the investment itself, but through those innovations, then driving productivity in their sectors.”

Senior highlights this idea and others in a recent documentary-style podcast called Innovating Agtech.

Senior… “If we continue with what we've always done, we'll get what we've always got. And actually it would be good to get more diversity into the kind of companies that are being backed, the kind of solutions that are being brought to market with greater pace.”

This is one area where Senior would like to see more aligned interests in agriculture.