This week's round-up from the Groundswell Agriculture festival. I share my reflections, pick out one of my fave talks of the show and welcome a new member in this week's vlog from Agri-TechE.

⛺ 😎 A more considered set of conversations at Groundswell this year - and Happy 10th Birthday to the Festival. Even the Secretary of State Emma Reynolds loved it!

🫶 Inspired by the session by Pasture for Life about data capture and hard metrics not always collecting and quantifying what farmers instinctively see, sense and feel. "A lack of data doesn't necessarily mean that something isn't true." A nice segue into the theme for our own #REAP2026 conference in November!

🫵 Lots of talk about the ADOPT programme (FYI Chris Lyons is your Go-To Person at Innovate UK about all things ADOPT) - this really is the way for farmers to de-risk their decisions to embrace new innovation. Great session chaired by Tom MacMillan with Lindsay Roome, Simon Pearson MBE and Bryony Gittins.

🪟 Window 1 opened of the new Sustainable Farming Incentive round. Brace yourself for the mad scramble!

📣 Welcome to a new member BionemaUk Group Limited - Groundswell was a perfect setting for the discussions about the technologies they develop and manufacture for biocontrol in agriculture.....

Plus we recorded some podcasts and did some filming which we'll be dropping over the next few weeks, but special thanks to:

David Linton | Cristóbal Uauy | Sarah Evered | Russell Batten | Louise Penn

Also a shout out to the amazing little Agri-TechE team - Kate Brunswick | Becky Dodds | Kristina Kalinina | Deryn Gant | Sophie Butler | Laura Bouvet

News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE.

We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions.

https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lots of Defra news to share, plus we talk about trade-offs around global food security, and consider if high-input agriculture still make sense. Plus we welcome some of our latest new members.

This week in the Agri-TechE round-up:

📣 Defra’s been busy this week. The Farming Roadmap has landed, and we discover what the Government thinks about the 2025 Farming Profitability Review as it releases its official response. Plus £53m more investment in the Farming Innovation Partnership.

💭 Global food security is more than a multi-disciplinary challenge – the discussions being led within the University of Cambridge around resilient, healthy and sustainable food systems. We talked about the balance between diversity vs uniformity, availability vs sustainability, efficiency vs redundancy….where are the trade-offs?

❓ The Royal Norfolk Show's brilliant "Great Debate" this year asks if high-input agriculture has had its day - and kicks off with a thought-provoking ice-breaker question.......

🤖 Our colleague Becky Dodds helped bring engineering and farming together - mixed with a dash of skills discussions - future at the the AgriFoRwArdS Agri-Robotics Futures Showcase in #Lincoln

And welcome to some of our latest new members:

🥔 🍟 Diced, crinkled, curly or straight? We welcome global potato and fries grower and processor, Lamb Weston.

💡 🪴 Control your lighting and energy in glasshouses using wireless mesh – like a smart remote control and health tracker for greenhouse lights, with NETVION.

📊 🚜 A global public record for farm evidence is being built by Proof - working across enterprises, seasons, systems and outcomes. Starting with #biologicals and #biostimulants in #arable agriculture.

News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE.

We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions.

https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rounding up the Agri-TechE week on farm, courtesy of Home Farm Nacton – the 43rd Demonstrator Farm for LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming).

Also this week:

- Applications open for early stage #agritech ventures to present at our Focus on Finance event (Sept 17th – all welcome).

- All eyes looking to Groundswell Agriculture – we chat to two of our members as they make their final preparations for next week’s Regenerative Ag Festival – we’ll be there, come and see us on stand M24.

- Talking financial resilience through cyber security with other business founders thanks to EY. Yikes.

News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE.

We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions.

https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hazel Alpaca (newly-shorn) and I are here to tell you about Cereals, the Festival of Fresh, the next in our “Agri-Tech Meets…” series, plus the Big Announcement that UK farmers have been awaiting.

This week from Agri-TechE:

🕳️ My learnings from the Niab soil hole at Cereals Event (and thank you David Clarke for a great explanation about "plate-y" limestone and following the wormholes).

💭 A mantra for #agritech start-ups - when you have great tech but are innovating in a crowded field.

🥗 From Cereals – to fresh produce, with the Festival of Fresh hosted by G's Group. Audit process streamlining, the rise of the robots – and a discussion about Ultra Processed Foods (link to the public dialogue report in the comments below).

🚀 Agri-Tech Meets… SPACE in the next in our series of exploring the interfaces between sectors.

📉 The budget for the next phase of the Sustainable Farming Incentive has been announced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs… is it going to be enough? (answers on a postcard).

Also great catch-ups with Steve McLean from the UK Agri-Tech Centre, and a very valuable meeting of the Agriculture Sector Group supporting Innovate UK Business Connect.

News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE.

We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions.

https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Forecasting the weather, crop performance and pest and disease outbreaks has been peppered with rhyming slogans and old wives’ tales (DM me to discover the one about the right time to drill sugar beet - too rude for the vlog!).

This week the Agri-TechE round-up is from a sugar beet field, talking about the top tech being used by British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO) to bring some science to the slogans, using AI and smart traps to detect and predict beet moth and Cerospera (leaf spot).

Also this week:

🖱️ Working alongside Apple and IBM as part of the University of East Anglia School of Computing Sciences Industry Advisory Board – what does our sector need for new computing graduates to be “Employment Ready?”

🛜 An opportunity to learn about the private 5G network trial connecting up smart devices across an entire farming estate in Gloucestershire – join the Open Day where we are partnering with Overbury Enterprises.

☣️ Chemical risk management through software as a service – learning more about farmer and agronomist empowerment (within regulatory rules) from Kate Bromfield.

💷 The funding ceiling for the farmer-led ADOPT R&D grants has gone up to £200,000. Bigger projects.....more farmers involved! Well done, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Innovate UK for listening and adapting.

News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE.

We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions.

https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve all wilted and dried out in the UK heatwave this week… imagine the impact on those growing high value, short-season crops such as #peonies?

How much of their marketable crop was a peony grower left with this week? Answer in the video…..

👏 Big thanks to the team at Niab for a great event, where we talked precision breeding, and learning how crop #genetics might influence the microbial communities living around plant roots, and airborne detection of yellow rust.

🧬 Learning what a pangenome is and why understanding the one for wheat can unlock greater breeding insights, thanks to the work underway by Rachel Rusholme Pilcher at the Earlham Institute.

🦠 With the rise of microbial crop products, what are the rules about patenting #biologicals? Ian MacLeod of J A Kemp is on hand to guide you through it.

📣 The next in the series of #AgriChat has landed, where I discuss the importance of an independent national capability around spray technology research and validation with Philip Carpenter of DE SANGOSSE .

🗞️ And a newsletter landed - did you receive yours/ We had lots of policy updates in this one!

News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE.

We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions.

https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Opening this week’s round-up with apologies to Gerry Rafferty (and to anyone too young to appreciate the appalling pastiche of a 1970s pop sone).

This week:

❓ Are we a "Well-Adapted UK" when it comes to climate risk? The 4th independent review landed this week with some stern recommendations as to how Government should support farmers as their farming models evolve. #citrus and #chickpea, anyone?

🙏 A big thank you to all involved in our "Introduction to Agri-tech" event, not least Agrii for hosting us, and the British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN) and GK Strategy for their support.

👋 A warm welcome to three of our latest new members:

Map My Crop an on-farm and supply chain platform to help manage multiple crops, platforms and on-farm interventions - AND help you calculate your ROI.

Roboverse Reply UK - cracking the inter-operability challenge around drones and robots from different manufacturers.

Astell Bio (by Astell Scientific Ltd.) - safe decontamination of effluent, using heat and pressure.

And I learn more about the 5-year transformation plan underway at Rothamsted Research​

News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE.

We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions.

https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Agri-TechE round-up features our discussions on crop health solutions, a new UK offering for on-farm R&D and we’ve entered the world of podcasts. And you’ll learn what the Medici Effect is and why it’s important for #agritech.

🚜 Our first on-farm “Demo-Day” – showcasing technology solutions for soils and water management at Elveden Farms Ltd

📣 We launched Season 2 of our #AgriChat podcast!

First episode is “SPS101” with CropLife UK, to coincide with this week's Kings Speech – “it’s more than a trade deal – it’s a negotiation of GB’s agricultural policy.” (Find it wherever you get your podcasts, as they say!)

Two more podcasts recorded this week, including with DE SANGOSSE with MD Philip Carpenter sharing his views on the critical importance of retaining UK national capability around researching and validating spray technologies. Watch this space.

🙌 Attending the opening of the very inspiring Dyson Farming Research Centre – check out the story and interview with MD Daniel Cross on our website. A new national resource to test, trial and validate new tech on farm and at scale.

💪 Keeping crops healthy with use of biology with chemistry – we talk to Mark Waltham, CEO of Certis Belchim about prioritising plant health for resilience.

🗣️ Discussing the State of the Nation – and beyond – with Bayer’s UK MD, Kate Connors.

⚡ Growing bioenergy feedstocks in the most regenerative way possible - at the Agricultural Advisory Board of Future Biogas

❗ And don’t forget the “Introduction to Agri-tech” event at Throw’s Farm next week, kindly hosted by Agrii. Register here: https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/civicrm/event/info/?reset=1&id=27317

News, trends, and breakthroughs shaping the future of farming, brought to you by Agri-TechE.

We are a not-for-profit, independent organisation for our members. We bring together forward-thinking farmers, researchers, technologists, and agri-businesses to foster collaboration and drive impactful solutions.

https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.