Seven innovative agricultural technologies supporting primary production and agribusiness accross the state will benefit from over $600,000 in grants from the second round of the State Government's AgTech Growth Fund.
The fund, designed to accelerate the development and commercialisation of innovative agricultural technologies in South Australia's agricultural sector provides grants of up to $100,000 to projects that address a specific industry challenge in these areas of focus:
*improve drought resilience and climate adaptation for primary producers
*improve carbon management, sustainability credentials or natural capital on farm to measure and monitor performance to consumers and the supply chain
*improve market access and maximise value for primary producers through traceability and credentialling.
Projects set to benefit from this latest round of the AgTech Growth Fund include:
*Bio-Optics Australia Pty Ltd - trials and data collection to certify a new version of their optical, hand-held testing device for woold producers to know fleece quality in real-time.
*Athena Irrigation Technologies Pty Ltd – further development of an irrigation scheduling system.
*Eldridge Fresh Organics – development of AI system to integrate greenhouse monitoring of temperature, water control and carbon emission reporting to inform future tech upgrades.
*AirborneLogic Pty Ltd – Implementing technology and reporting systems for winegrape growers to share carbon stock data through the industry's sustainability program.
*Mobishear Pty Ltd – Development of a cordless shearing handpiece
*COtL Pty Ltd – Software development for real time data and decision-support on the Mesonet (SA automated weather station network) for climate related crop disease and pest models.
*Datahash Pty Ltd – adding a consumer engagement capability to verify dairy industry retail compliance data.
For further information on the AgTech Growth Fund visit www.pir.sa.gov.au/primary_industry/agtech/agtech_growth_fund
As put by Clare Scriven
Round Two of the AgTech Growth Fund provides a significant boost to the South Australian AgTech sector and is assisting the development of innovative solutions that benefit producers and our primary industries.
South Australian primary producers have a well-founded reputation for being some of the most innovative and resourceful in the world. The Fund brings primary producers and AgTech developers together, to collaborate on innovative solutions for real challenges facing the agriculture sector in South Australia.
Continued development of AgTech solutions in partnership with primary producers provides real efficiencies and will further encourage their uptake by primary producers.
The return on realising the potential of AgTech is currently estimated at $2.6 billion a year in extra agriculture gross value of production in South Australia. There is also the benefit of better managing our scarce resources which continues to become ever more important as the challenges of climate change increase.
