Items Tagged with 'AG TECH'

The Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology is launching a new initiative aimed at increasing the technology used in monitoring and maintaining food safety in specialty crops

Farmers have long played a part in bringing new seeds and other technologies to market by trying things out on a small scale before a company makes a new product widely available. But now some ag tech start-ups are leveraging the knowledge and creativity of farmers to engage them earlier and more broadly in new product development.

A company that has brought to the marketplace an autonomous strawberry harvester says it has raised $25 million to mechanize apple picking.

USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. National Science Foundation have announced a $220 million investment in 11 new Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes that will be led by NSF.

Technology that automates weeding, harvesting or other farm work is not taking jobs away from humans. Rather, it’s helping bridge the gap between work that needs to be done and a labor force that isn’t sufficient, a panel of ag technology leaders said during the Agri-Pulse Summit in Sacramento Monday.

Ahead of what could be another severe wildlife season, a new tool uses air quality and atmospheric data to give farmers up-to-the-minute information about crop risk.

The intersection of increasing labor shortages, higher pay for agricultural workers, and new attention to employee safety is highlighting efforts to bring labor-saving technologies to specialty crop fields.