AgriTech — An opportunity to make billions of $$$
And Potentially Save Millions of Lives
Agricultural processes are fraught with inefficiencies. The unpredictability of crop yields, difficulty in tracking and maintaining the health and productivity of livestock, food safety concerns due to opacity in the supply chain, and food loss are problems that affect each and every one of us, whether we are aware of it or not.
These inefficiencies cost farmers, consumers and tax payers (that’s everyone y’all) staggering amounts of money, and more importantly, contribute to the pervasive world hunger problem.
Want to get a better sense of the problem at hand? The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have some stats to help out with that:
- Approximately 1/3 of food produced in the world for human consumption — approximately 1.3 billion tons — gets lost or wasted each year.
- Food loss and waste amount to roughly $680 billion in industrialized countries and $310 billion in developing countries.
- Even if just one-fourth of the food currently lost or wasted globally could be saved, it would be enough to feed 870 million hungry people in the world.
For a bit more context, take a look at the graph below also created by The FAO to differentiate between food lost in the supply chain and food lost by the consumer.
And that’s just food loss.
There are deficiencies in every step of the food supply chain. All this to say, this is clearly a big problem. That means: a big opportunity. One that can be fully realized with technology.
Tech can allow us to source better ingredients, deliver those ingredients more efficiently and with less waste, and feed more people at a lower cost. There are billions of dollars to be made. And more importantly, there’s the opportunity to eradicate world hunger.
AgriTech (That’s the word for all of this opportunity) is ripe for disruption (Nice produce pun, Katlyn. Thanks, Katlyn.), and I want to highlight some of the startups already leading the charge.
BovControl
First off, I want to note something about BovControl: This company is trying to get the ball rolling on a pretty sweet new buzzword: the “Internet of Cows,” which I use all the time now.
More than creating bovine-related buzzwords, though, BovControl is taking on world hunger by making the meat and dairy industries more efficient.
Cows are living things before they are meat. And as such, they get sick. And pregnant. And lost. The antiquated tagging system leaves substantial room for error. It also makes it very difficult to track the health of individual cows in large herds. This means cows are sick longer, produce less milk, and too often die because of unnoticed disease.
BovControl is an app that stores and tracks each cow’s basic data, such as birth date, medication, vaccinations, and weight. Then, through whatever tech the farmer currently uses (a basic ear tag up to a Bluetooth smart collar), the app continually logs and analyzes data on each cow and makes predictions. These insights help the farmer better understand the productivity of the herd and anticipate any actions that will best optimize the health of the cows and profits of the farm.
More healthy cows. More profits. More beef. Less hunger.
FarmLead
We’re all basically consuming grain all the time. 75% of my day is spent consuming grain. That’s just me? Whatever. I like bread.
As ubiquitous as grain is, you would think that there would be technology out there that allows buyers and sellers to connect easily.
Nope. It’s all still old school traditional marketing. This new thing called the internet hasn’t been introduced to the equation.
Until now. FarmLead saw this void and decided to fill it with a digital marketplace that works much like eBay. Buyers and sellers list, negotiate and finalize grain deals, 24/7 and at a significantly reduced cost versus traditional brokerage fees.
Also noteworthy, the FarmLead team just raised $6.5 million, with Monsanto Growth Ventures leading the Series A deal. You can see this and other interesting logistics tech funding updates in our weekly update.
Descartes Labs
Descartes Labs combines satellite imagery with data about our planet to produce insights and forecasts for agriculture.
This machine-learning tech makes predictions using satellite data that monitors vegetation and other changes happening on the earth’s surface. Farmers can then use these predictions to better anticipate crop production- thus bringing significantly more stability to farmers, particularly those on smaller to mid-sized farms who often live on the margins.
For a peek at another interesting technological creation of the Descartes Lab, take a look at their Medium post on their GeoVisual Search technology that searches the globe for similar looking objects. It’s like facial recognition but for the entire planet, and it’s pretty incredible.
Vinsight
Vinsight made last week’s weekly update and deserves mention here. This startup analyzes existing data provided by government agencies, growers and elsewhere to provide predictive insights to farmers.
So, for example, it will look at the number of sunny days vs. rainy days, windspeed, pollination, etc. and predict whether a farmer’s grapes will thrive. If not, a farmer can decide to plant a more durable crop that can withstand more trying weather conditions.
Gold Farm
The sharing economy has found a place in agriculture, particularly in India, where booking farm equipment has long been a challenge.
Gold Farm has created a platform to help small farms in India thrive by offering shared equipment — making it more readily available and at a lower cost.
A farmer can call a call center, book from a smartphone, or book through the nearest post office. This can be a real game changer, particularly for the farmer just making ends meet.
Know of any other exciting AgriTech startups? Give them a shoutout below. And don’t forget to click the ❤ if you enjoyed the read. It means a lot.
