Saint Louis, Missouri, USA and Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina
March 14, 2019
Agtech has been a buzzword in the ag world since 2011, and the industry really began to attract interest after Monsanto’s acquisition of Climate Corp in 2013. According to AgFunder, in 2018, $16.9 billion was invested across 1442 deals, a 43% increase in funding volume from 2017, and a 10.5% growth in the number of deals. The market has clearly recognized an opportunity in the need to implement new technology to ensure global food security.
As such, we need a road map to understand how we can prepare for this opportunity. Given the complexity of our existing agricultural systems, coupled with the ever-evolving layers of the tech world, furthering agtech development & adoption poses a complex problem. This is not a problem that will be solved by a single entity; strong ecosystem approaches are needed. Ag and tech companies, professionals, educators, governments and entrepreneurs must work together to find the multiple solutions that are needed to solve a central human problem: food security.
The Yield Lab Institute and Universidad Austral commissioned this whitepaper in an effort to begin to define the “Rules of Engagement” for agriculture technology (agtech) stakeholders. We believe that agtech entrepreneurial ecosystems requires different modeling than those exemplified by the traditional “cluster initiatives” often cited in economic development modeling. These ecosystems must enable connectivity between and meet the needs of all of the stakeholders within agtech, from farmers to startups to funders to eaters, and everyone in between.
An in-depth assessment was conducted of St. Louis, MO, USA - a relatively well-established and highly regarded agtech ecosystem. A high-level assessment was conducted of Rosario, Sante Fe, Argentina, an agricultural pole in the early stages of development to become an agtech hub. We sought to understand transposable elements from St. Louis’s success, and to identify areas for improvement in both regions.
This report, “Foundations of Agricultural Ecosystems,” represents Phase 1 of a multi-layered process to define the Rules of Engagement for agtech. Our report found opportunities across Human Capital, Financial Capital, Public Policy, Infrastructure, and Connectivity in both regions, including a very clear need in both regions for intentionally facilitating intersection between the various components of the ecosystem.
In conducting this research, we found that there was more to learn than we could write down. We now hope that a number of follow up projects are borne out of this work. Ultimately, we hope to use this as a launching point to creating a global network of agtech ecosystems.
Innovation does not happen in a silo - it requires support from the community. Agtech innovation is crucial for sustainable food production into the future. Thus, we must work together in global collaborations such as this to better communicate and enable the creation of these communities.
Download the full report.
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