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Tāmaki Makaurau – Technology is shaping the future of agriculture which will help inject a massive impetus into the New Zealand economy, AgriTechNZ chief executive Brendan O’Connell says.

It’s a double impact, with exports of agricultural technologies growing and many of those same technologies transforming what agriculture and horticulture looks like in Aotearoa, he says. 

Agritech underpins current levels of primary industry productivity and is leading new levels of performance and sustainability. Much of what is happening now is building on the digital foundations for agriculture in and from New Zealand.

“The technologies behind our genetic gains, farm modelling and management systems have enabled the growth of our primary industries. Now new tools are building on these digital foundations to drive the next levels of productivity and sustainability on farm.

“We are seeing the use of environmental sensors to quickly identify and manage a range of farm issues. That includes automating the right time, rate and place to irrigate on a pastoral farm as well as addressing problematic microclimates in controlled environment systems such as indoor and vertical farms, which are extensive around the world.

“Image sensors are used in the development of facial recognition for animal identification and fruit counting and sizing applications. These are all tasks that, when automated, significantly improve the productive output of our farms whilst mitigating environmental impacts.

“This ability to match farming knowledge with technology development is a New Zealand strength and links well to findings in the recent Productivity Commission report.”

The report encourages government investment on areas of existing or emerging economic strength and competitive advantage. A small country can excel in only a limited number of areas that can get to critical mass and support sustained world-class competitive performance.

Exporting distinctive products at scale is the way to reach for the global frontier, and New Zealand’s ability to innovate in food production is surely distinctive in the eyes of both global consumers and food producers.

O’Connell says these strengths are recognised in a new $40 million dollar investment fund aimed at companies capable of amplifying New Zealand’s ability to curtail environmental impacts whilst producing better foods, globally.

The fund was launched by US based Finistere Ventures in partnership with New Zealand Growth Capital Partners, and will be based in Palmerston North at The Factory, a leading R&D and company incubation cluster that has a longstanding relationship with Finistere. 

During the last few months, I’ve been travelling the country hosting the Agritech Industry Transformation Plan (ITP) update roadshow with David Downs from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). In total, we’ve hosted over 600 attendees and received valuable feedback on what is most important to our agritech community. The touring has also enabled me to visit with local innovators across the regions.

Throughout Aotearoa, there is great work being done by a diverse range of people, all translating the potential of technology for the benefit of agriculture. I’m reminded of the phrase coined by John Deere, “Feet on the ground, eyes on the horizon” and think of the role we play in enabling innovative technology solutions. It’s an interesting combination of inspiring possibilities and realising opportunities. Each of us is part of this technology community, with shared interests in the wider primary industry sector. We are agritech!

The roadshow has also highlighted the importance of links to global opportunities, support and approaches to enabling commercialisation of great ideas, plus the sector demands for greater levels of data interoperability. These topics are too vast to detail here, but remain a key focus as we work with our agency partners to benefit from the ITP.

A New Zealand partnership is developing new artificial intelligence (AI) computing power and technology to meet demand from scientists for faster processing of complex research data. 

The PlantTech Research Institute in Tauranga and New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI) have partnered to accelerate innovative research.

Horticulture and produce are among the first New Zealand industries to benefit from this faster AI computing infrastructure, with PlantTech scientists using it to explore new approaches to data driven horticulture in key sectors, including kiwifruit. 

It will remove computer processing bottlenecks that limit the ability for data scientists to train AI models that learn from high volumes of complex and tightly coupled data. It will also dramatically reduce the turnaround times for current AI research. 

NeSI has procured a first tranche of Nvidia A100 general purpose Graphics Processing Units (GPGPUs) and is working with early adopter communities, including PlantTech, to pilot these new technologies.  

“This is a special collaboration, enhancing the capabilities and support we offer to New Zealand’s agricultural research communities, particularly those working in emerging technologies, such as AI and deep learning,” says NeSI director Nick Jones. 

PlantTech chief executive Dr Mark Begbie says access to the high-performance GPU-based platform is critical for PlantTech’s market driven, horticulture focussed research, as well as for the wider primary sector. 

“Having access to the latest generation of systems brings capabilities that will enable new approaches to highly complex data challenges that will deliver step change benefits across productivity, profitability, sustainability, provenance, and biosecurity,” he says.  

“Achieving the transfer 80-100 times faster is hugely beneficial – a day-and-a-half becomes an hour. But for large data packages, transfer is simply not practically achievable over the internet.”  

“In 2021, this is more important than ever, particularly as the Government focuses on New Zealand’s economic recovery post-COVID-19 and executes the Agritech Industry Transformation Plan (ITP) to build stronger and more productive horticulture and agriculture sectors.” 

In its first year, the research institute has trialled innovative solutions for the kiwifruit industry, including crop estimation and fruit maturity testing. 

Dr Georgina Rae, NeSI’s science engagement manager, expects the new platform will act as a catalyst for boundary breaking science in New Zealand. 

2020 Water Challenge winners announced

• Bridge Hub 2020 Water Challenge aimed to solve water problems in the agri supply chain
• Challenge will commercialise trans-Tasman solutions in Australia and New Zealand to maximise impact

As researchers look to create water out of thin air, the future of agrifood innovation looks bright, but collaboration and investment will be the key to getting ideas off the page and into market, according to Craig Shapiro, co-CEO of Bridge Hub, which has just announced the winners of its 2020 Water Challenge.

Launched in February, the Bridge Hub 2020 Water Challenge aimed to uncover the best and brightest research, the most innovative ideas, and the best startups that positively impact water sustainability across our agrisystem. The global Challenge attracted over 150 researchers and entrepreneurs from Australia, New Zealand and Israel.

Winning solutions as diverse as creating water from air, measuring water with acoustics and sludge-free waste recycling for remote communities highlight that the Water Challenge has been successful in its aim of uncovering some of the leading cutting edge solutions currently being developed.

“The quality of not only the winning solutions but of all the applicants highlights that we have the capacity to achieve anything if we turn our minds to the task at hand. Our ability to solve problems across the entire agrifood supply chain is only limited by our imagination, as long as we have the right frameworks in place,” Craig says.

The Water Challenge has provided recognition and prize money to the winning teams, but just as important, it has created a connected and collaborative community from across the globe, all of whom share Bridge Hub’s passion for solving global water-related problems. 

“While today marks the end of the Water Challenge, it is just the beginning of a bigger journey of working with a global community of like-minded organisations and individuals to transform many of the big ideas and solutions submitted to the Water Challenge into impactful and successful outcomes.”

The Water Challenge wraps up at a time when agrifood research  bodies are increasing their focus on both commercialisation and adoption of research, climate change continues to present global challenges and Australian agriculture considers how it achieves its goal of becoming a $100 billion industry.

Governments in many jurisdictions are allocating significant funding to help underpin the future growth of the agriculture and food sectors with many positive initiatives underway. Many of these include a focus on drought resilience and water quality.

“To solve our water related problems we will always need investment,” Craig says. “The opportunity for future investment in agrifood tech solutions is in many cases enabled by government initiatives but it is private investment that will always be the prime driver to turn great ideas into commercially successful outcomes.”

Craig believes there will be an increasing pool of capital available to be allocated to investment opportunities in the agrifood tech sector. This includes capital from the growing number of global impact investors, who require normal financial returns but also want their investments to have a positive and sustainable impact on the environment or society.

“Ultimately, we need the private sector, research, and government working together to increase investment which will underwrite the successful and sustainable future for agriculture and food production. The establishment of industry led agrifood tech bodies such as AgritechNZ and Ausagritech will also help to drive investment towards the rapidly growing agrifood tech sector. We are extremely optimistic about the direction we’re heading and in particular how the ideas unlocked from the Bridge Hub 2020 Water Challenge can play a role in that sustainable future.”

Winners of the Bridge Hub 2020 Water Challenge were announced today during a virtual event.

BRIDGE HUB 2020 WATER CHALLENGE WINNERS

Australian Research Stream – sponsored by CSIRO
Advanced Capture of Water from the Atmosphere (ACWA)
Prof Chiara Neto, The University of Sydney
Ground breaking research that is working on a new water solution that aims to capture water from the air.

New Zealand Research Stream – sponsored by Zespri
Real-time control of irrigation through acoustic sensing to prevent runoff and pollution. (Acoustic sensing for Irrigation)
Dr Chandra Ghimire, AgResearch Ltd. Lincoln New Zealand
Research that is using acoustic technology to help irrigators to be smarter with their water efficiency.

Australian Startup Stream – sponsored by Commonwealth Bank
Streamwise DI
Paul Hatten, Clayton VIC
Waste Water solution that improves environmental outcomes and operating efficiencies of food manufacturers through the use of Artificial Intelligence.

New Zealand Startup Stream – Sponsored by Wharf42
RiverWatch
James Muir, Matarangi
A water quality solution that provides real time monitoring and decision making for our rivers and waterways. 

Israel Startup Stream
LagunaTech
Clive Lipchin, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Kibbutz Ktura
Decentralised wastewater treatment solution that assists remote and off grid communities to create new water sources.

In New Zealand, when we think of countries known for their agritech prowess, we frequently refer to Singapore, Israel, The Netherlands, Ireland and the United States of America (USA).

Already under way, but accelerated by the global pandemic, more countries with strong agricultural contributions to their gross domestic product (GDP) are investing significantly in advancing their agtech sectors.  For example, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

This further highlights the importance of New Zealand’s Agritech Industry Transformation Plan (ITP) developed in partnership with the All of Government taskforce and supported with a significant 2020 Budget allocation. Brendan O’Connell, our interim CEO, tells me he recently attended one of the early industry reference groups (the Horticulture Automation Activator) advising and creating ITP project activity. He was impressed by the genuine collaboration that is directing further investment and creating industry capabilities to address systemic issues.

I recently had the opportunity to meet virtually with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s (NZTE) global team, so they could be updated on our deep and broad ITP engagement, and its focus to enable New Zealand’s agritech sector to punch above its weight domestically, across Australasia and globally. But there was a salient message from the NZTE team, and one we do well to heed. Currently, New Zealand does not have global brand recognition as a leader in agtech – agriculture, for sure – but not agtech. At least not as much as we think, if we fall victim to believing what we hear in our own echo chamber.

We have a solid foundation with the ITP, and we have some great companies doing remarkable work. There is still much to do before New Zealand is recognised as the agritech country we aspire to be. There are three practical steps we can undertake to help achieve this aspiration.

Firstly, members get members – if you know of colleagues in the agritech sector who are not members of AgritechNZ, please invite them to join. Having a strong industry voice will direct efforts in areas that most benefit New Zealand agritech businesses.

Second, collaborate domestically – support the data standards and interoperability work that is being ably undertaken by our Practitioner Working Group. It is unglamorous back-room work, about as fascinating as underground power cables or cell phone towers, but essential to enable the free flow of permissioned data, on which farmers and growers, global suppliers and buyers can make better decisions.

Third, partner with Australia – adding our two sectors together still leaves us as a drop in the ocean in terms of global spend. We are stronger together, and can’t afford to duplicate resources to produce identical outcomes on both sides of the pond.  AgritechNZ and AusAgritech are forging deeper and better relations at both association and individual member level.

Ngā mihi

Kenneth Irons
Chair
Agritech New Zealand

PS: Please let us know of your industry event if you would like it mentioned in future newsletters.

Since its inception in 2018, AgriTechNZ has grown significantly and now combines the resources of members, supporters, funders and researchers. We are a 160+ member-strong organisation with the people, passion, resources and direction to deliver value to producers, growers, researchers, Government and our agritech businesses large and small.

We’re now able to progress and participate in work that will benefit global agriculture, New Zealand, our sector and our businesses. The New Zealand Government’s Agritech Industry Transformation Plan enables us as businesses and government organisations to collaborate in new ways. AgriTechNZ is now the only group that represents a collective and independent view of the agritech sector in New Zealand. We have a lot to be proud of: our work empowers primary production, and together we can take this even further. Let’s make the most of the many opportunities ahead of us. 

Welcome to our experienced new Executive Council

AgriTechNZ’s Executive Council (EC) has now replaced the formative Establishment Council. The new EC includes Andrew Hoggard, National President of Federated Farmers, Dan Bloomer of LandWISE, Daniel O’Brien of AWS, Simon Yarrow of Callaghan Innovation, Sophie Rebbeck of Lincoln Agritech, Peter Nation, CEO of New Zealand National Fieldays, Brendan O’Connell (independent), and deputy chair Dion Cawood of Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC).

Introducing our new Interim CEO

Brendan O’Connell has been appointed as the interim CEO while the Executive Council formally recruits a permanent CEO. He will build on the successes achieved during Peter Wren-Hilton’s tenure as Executive Director and will continue working with Peter in the further delivery of member benefits. In this role Brendan will work with members and government representatives to further develop the ITP opportunities and progress existing projects.

Brendan has a technology leadership background and has developed a strong affinity with the agritech sector, its people and its purpose. 

On behalf of the EC and all members, I extend our thanks and appreciation to Peter and Jacqui Wren-Hilton for their significant contribution to the establishment of AgriTechNZ. We are delighted that they can continue to add their experience and insight in an advisory role with a particular focus on key global alliances. 

Your opportunity to be involved 

First, I hope wherever you are, you and your family are safe and well. These are indeed strange times. Closed borders have new meaning, because today, I can travel to Hamilton, but not to Auckland. However, in the world of Agritech New Zealand, things are not slowing down!

Techweek may be over for another year, but we’ve collated our pick of agritech viewing for you.