New solutions to agri-food challenges in REAP 2020 Start-Up Showcase

A pop-up livestock facility that aims to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions; edible micro plastics from pea powder; super compact robot technology to improve yields; pheromone traps to inform precision spraying; land tech to support development of Natural Capital markets; bee wellbeing alert system to improve health of rented hives; seeing through clouds to improve crop risk assessment.

These were the disruptive solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing global agri-food production presented by early-stage agri-tech companies in the REAP Start-Up Showcase.
The companies were selected to present in the Start-Up Showcase, sponsored by Rothamsted Enterprises,  at Agri-TechE ’s REAP 2020 conference to an audience of farmers, investors, fellow technologists and researchers. A presence in the showcase has proven to be a good indicator of potential – many previous participants have successfully secures funding, deals and collaborators.

“The broader ‘One Agriculture’ type approaches presented at REAP today recognise that natural systems are interconnected and understanding that can help guide the direction of future innovations,” comments Dr Belinda Clarke, Director of Agri-TechE , a membership organisation supporting the growth of the agri-tech ecosystem.

“We have seen technologies that focus on the micro-scale of pheromones for trapping midges right through to the international scale of earth observation from satellites to mitigate risk of crop failure.
“Managing across all these scales is vital to take us closer to sustainable, productive and profitable agriculture. We need to focus our efforts on creating collaborations that can accelerate solutions to global challenges.”