Investors are pushing billions of dollars into the agtech industry. As a result, some incredible innovations are changing the landscape of agriculture. But what is it exactly?
Simply put, agtech describes any technology or innovation that improves farming and growing processes. Technologies like sensors, drones, and automated tractors are all common applications of agtech.
Often these technologies tackle the areas of improving yields, better usage of resources, reducing waste and pesticides, or improving food safety. These technologies are most commonly used in the farming of crops, but also have applications in the livestock sector as well.
Agtech is becoming commonplace among many of the large players in the food and beverage industry.
PepsiCo developed iCrop, an agtech tool to support it’s potato, corn, oat, and peanut farmers. These farmers are located all across the world and supply the ingredients for PepsiCo’s key brands, including Lay’s and Doritos. The iCrop tool originated as a way to track the performance of new potatoes. The tool enables the farmers to track, in real-time, over 240 variables per field. The collected data includes information such as soil type, location, date of planting, and date the crop emerges. They can then analyze the data to determine how to make the best potatoes with the least amount of resources.
Farmers for Molson Coors are using agtech to extract better data from their barley fields. Molson Coors provides incentives for their farmers to farm more efficiently. They will even install weather stations and soil sensors on the farms for them. The weather stations give farmers much better insight into planting and irrigation. The soil sensors collect data on soil moisture so the farmers can make data driven decisions on soil quality. Some of the farmers are even using satellite imagery to monitor the farm.
Anheuser Busch, known for their brands like Budweiser and Bud Light, are investing in agtech to mitigate the environmental impacts of farming. A new SmartBarley platform aims to improve productivity for barley growers. Data is collected from weather stations, satellites, drones, and mobile phones so farmers can identify problems and take the steps to fix them. The system can analyze the data for better insights into crop inputs and water usage. Ultimately, farmers can trim back on resources for a more sustainable and productive farm.
At HerdWhistle, we develop agtech products for the beef feedlot industry. Similar to PepsiCo, Molson Coors, and Anheuser Busch, we are collecting data. Everytime an animal eats or drinks, we collect information on their feeding behaviours. That data is then analyzed and presented to the feedlot operator so they can take action for a more efficient and sustainable operation.
