Federated Farmers: Agritech entrepreneurs on the rise

Rural technology continues to advance.

Technology and innovation for the rural sector continues to advance as Building Clever Companies (BCC) works with increasing agritech startups and entrepreneurs.

"Our role is to support them," says BCC startup manager James Bell-Booth. "We work closely with entrepreneurs who are developing solutions to help farmers improve profitability and efficiency."

In the past two years BCC has noticed growth in this area, both locally and globally. Each year, BCC looks at 400 new ideas; last year, roughly 60 per cent of the organisation's work was in agritech.

Businesses such as BioLumic's UV plant growth research, CropX's irrigation system, CalfSMART's automated calf feeding system and Polybatics revolutionary Tb test are just some of the agritech startups that have worked with BCC.

"It's not enough, for example, to tell a farmer what the level of nitrogen is in a paddock or how much a calf weighs. What we need to do is take that measurement and prescribe the action to improve the paddock or, as in the case of CalfSMART, gather data on the calf and deliver the exact amount of feed that individual needs to most efficiently grow", says Mr Bell-Booth.

Not only does BCC seek out relationships and cultivate contacts in the sector, it is also developing tools to benefit those in it. "Most business accelerator programmes are designed for internet startups," says Mr Bell-Booth. "We're developing a new agri-focused accelerator based on the traditional accelerator model. We're adapting it to work with agritech companies that are developing products based on the wider context of agritech.

Because of the nature of agritech, the new accelerator will be offered remotely. "We'll use the internet and online tools for mentoring and then, every six to eight weeks, we'll hold executive-MBA-style block courses. Over a 48-hour period, we'll have workshops and face-to-face mentoring. Our goal is to help farmers. To do that, we work with entrepreneurs and startups in the agritech space. It's an incredibly exciting area to work in and we know there will be dozens of new ideas and companies to support."