Crop inputs

Image: Getty/Igor Alecsander

Regen ag: Undefined and unable to feed the planet?

By Oliver Morrison

Yes, its broad principles offer a promising path towards sustainable nutrition and food security for the future. But without a standard definition regen ag risks becoming a soon-disregarded fad, it has been warned.

Purple bacteria are found in a variety of shallow environments such as estuaries, salt marshes and hypersaline salterns. Image: Getty/wallix

The next source of eco-friendly fertiliser: purple bacteria?

By Oliver Morrison

Biomass made from a species of purple bacteria typically found in marine sediments, seawater pools and mud flats is an ‘excellent nitrogen fertiliser’, according to research published in the journal Sustainable Agriculture.

Image: Getty/Zbynek Pospisil

Budding European agtech start-ups buoyant after Corteva partnership

By Oliver Morrison

A new tie-up between agritech giant Corteva Agriscience and Dutch accelerator StartLife, which supports start-ups in the food and agriculture sectors, aims to enable solutions through open innovation and speed the path to market breakthrough agrifood...

RNAi technology is targeting the Colorado potato beetle, a destructive pest of potato crops that is developing resistance to traditional chemical pesticides. Image: Getty/ Oleh Bilovus

RNAi for crop protection: how are the key challenges being addressed?

By Oliver Morrison

The study of RNAi in biology has been around for decades, but the use of RNAi for crop protection is relatively new. We caught up with Canada-based Renaissance BioScience Corp, which is developing novel yeast-based RNA interference (RNAi) technology for...

Image: Getty/We Are

Is private equity investment best placed to serve agtech?

By Oliver Morrison

It’s a question we put to Sao Paulo, Brazil-based Aqua Capital, a private equity firm investing in sustainable and innovative companies within the ag and food sectors, which has announced the final closing of its Ag & Food PE Fund III (Fund III).

Image: Getty/Richard Drury

VC investment

Agtech's ‘great reset’ continues, data reveals

By Oliver Morrison

PitchBook’s latest Q1 2024 Agtech Report indicates a market undergoing a correction, with the wheat being separated from the chaff. Some sectors are hotter than others, meanwhile.

The new bioinsecticide von Bayer can be used in oilseed rape and cereals. Image: Getty/AlpamayoPhoto

Bayer to launch first bioinsecticide for arable crops

By Oliver Morrison

Via a new agreement with UK-based R&D company AlphaBio Control, Bayer has gained exclusive rights to market the first ever biological insecticide which will help farmers control pests in arable crops. The product is expected to launch in 2028.

David Friedberg with Vinod Khosla at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit

World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit Roundup

Agtech investment: Time to just forget the glory days of 2021?

By Oliver Morrison

Over the last 18 months there has been a notable shift in investor sentiment within the agtech sector, with the recent economic downturn casting a long shadow over the entrepreneurial landscape. Are we going to hell in a handcart? Is this an opportune...

Image: Getty/Susumu Yoshioka

Innovation insider

Japan wants to promote smart agriculture, fast

By Oliver Morrison

Agri-tech spend is lagging in the land of the rising sun. But amid the looming threats of depopulation and ageing, the government is looking to new styles of agriculture that can boost productivity, sustainability and strengthen national food security....

Image: Han Chen, co-founder and CEO of ZeaKal, which helps crops capture more carbon and sunlight.

World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit Roundup

Photosynthesis breakthrough in corn – but can a ‘new type’ of ag follow?

By Oliver Morrison

After boosting oil and protein content in soybean with no drop in yield, US company ZeaKal has replicated its success with corn. It now wants to redefine the value proposition of crops for growers, industry, and consumers alike, it tells AgTechNavigator.

Image: Getty/JGalione

How multiomics is supporting agricultural analysis

By Oliver Morrison

Science continues to explore new ways to make agriculture more efficient in the modern world, taking a thorough approach to research and leaving nothing off of the table, including the impact of climate change. Here, we talk with Partha Banerjee, PhD,...

Image: Aphea.Bio has so far launched two products: a biostimulant seed treatment for wheat and a maize biostimulant. Image: Getty/Roelof Bos

How biologicals can win where GMs didn't

By Oliver Morrison

Aphea.Bio’s recently appointed chairman Hadyn Parry predicts ‘huge’ growth for biostimulants and biofungicides. These are typically GM-free of course, but the market is well-placed to avoid the mistakes of the past, he tells AgTechNavigator.

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