Global agri-food challenges aided by 'disruption'

As technology increasingly disrupts the agriculture industry, the situation also poses opportunity, which hinges on agtech innovation, according to experts.

"Disruption is our opportunity, and innovation is our advantage," Beth Ford, president and CEO at Land O'Lakes Inc, said at an agtech and food-tech summit at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley.

The strong industry headwinds are posing substantial challenges for agriculture sector, such as the record low farm income which has caused producers and growers to lose their business, she told the Thrive Innovation Summit, which attracted hundreds of agribusiness leaders, investors, startups and growers.

Market and policy uncertainty also add to pressure, said Ford, using soybeans as an example. On average, 60 percent of soybeans produced in the US are exported to China annually, but sales to China have declined by 94 percent this year due to tariffs in the trade dispute between the two countries, she said.

The solution lies in innovation, which is driven by the level of disruption, she said.

Facing shared challenges in agriculture, such as a labor shortage, scarce resources and food safety, China is working to promote agtech and food-tech innovation to drive economic growth.

The Chinese government reiterated its strategy to ramp up the rural economy and improve rural income in the No 1 document issued by the State Council early this year.

Innovation is highlighted in the document as a strategy to boost the agriculture industry, including building agtech innovation platforms and industrial parks and nurturing agtech innovative companies.

The Nanjing National Agriculture Science and Technology Demonstration Zone, the first agricultural innovation park at State level, was launched in May.

"We have been working actively to introduce innovative technology and recruit talent," said Wang Liwen, deputy director-general of the administrative committee of the demonstration zone, at the summit.

"Silicon Valley is the center of global innovation. We hope to work with Silicon Valley to build an agricultural Silicon Valley in China," said Wang, who is heading a delegation to the area.

Biotech, smart agriculture, nutrition and health agriculture are among the key areas of the Nanjing demonstration zone, which will be built into a science and research center, technology transformation center, talent center and innovation center, according to Wang.

He said the demonstration zone is working with SVG Partners, a Silicon Valley-based investment and advisory firm and organizer of the Thrive Innovation Summit, to facilitate exchanges and collaboration between the two sides.

"We have focused on the future of agriculture, where technology meets agriculture, for the last seven years," said John Hartnett, founder and CEO of SVG Partners.

Through their "Thrive" platform, an acceleration program, the firm has built a community of more than 1,500 startups from 67 countries.

"The focus is on solving some of the biggest challenges — from field to fork, from food safety to supply chain," said Hartnett, who is also a member of the expert committee of the Nanjing innovation park.

Among the nine companies that SVG Partners has selected for this year's seed accelerator cohort are two from China.

The Beijing-based Alesca Life Technologies creates next-generation urban farming solutions using advanced software technology.

Tensorfield Agriculture, a startup based in California and China, is working on collaborative robots that perform non-invasive, no-herbicide weeding with thermal micro-dosing.

The company is finishing the development of its prototypes in Shenzhen now, said Jonathan Hua, Thrive program manager.