Meet the Groundbreaker growing crops indoors
Some of us just pass our final exams in our last semester of university – Alex Montanari started a company. Alex is the founder of AGRA Farming Technologies in Perth, driven by a mission to combat climate change and its impact on our world. With over four years of experience in the controlled environment agriculture scene, he’s consulted on projects for The University of Western Australia and the Australian Defence Force. Alex previously ran a successful media production company and launched an automated home growing product.
evokeᴬᴳ⋅ 2025 Groundbreaker Alex Montanari.
Tell us about your vision for the future of Australia’s cropping industry?
AGRA develops indoor Plant Factories that sustainably produce crops at the same price as traditional methods. Ultimately, I’m looking to produce staple crops such as wheat rice and soy, the crops with the biggest impact on our world.
Share your background and what drives your passion for climate change?
While I was at university, I’d heard all my life that climate change was one of the biggest challenges of our time and that it would be up to my generation to solve it. I realised, at the time, that I didn’t properly understand the subject and felt that if it were to be one our greatest challenges I should at the very least understand it.
Through my research I felt confident about our path to addressing sustainable energy production and consumption but learned that agriculture had a tremendous impact on our world, impacting and impacted by climate change and socio-economic factors, with no clear path to a global solution.
If we did nothing, we would face challenges in feeding the population while doing untold damage to our world.
Crops are responsible for the same GHG emissions as all of transportation globally. It is also the single largest cause of deforestation and forest degradation, a leading cause of habitat destruction, species extinction, land degradation, responsible for 30% of global water withdrawals, and water contamination and eutrophication.
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Farming as a profession is in decline (11% decline between 2006 and 2011 in Australia) and crop yields are expected to decline by 10-20% by the middle of the century while our production needs to increase by 70%.
All the while, farmers face uncharacteristically high instances of mental health issues and suicide (tied to a rural job ruled by the weather) with the FAO reporting agriculture as one of the most hazardous jobs worldwide.
Plant Factories are unique in that they can address almost all of agriculture’s challenges in one solution. However, they are traditionally expensive to build and operate. I began looking to existing companies to focus on price parity and the need to pursue staple crops, but they weren’t interested.
I realised that cost was the key to driving adoption and change, similar to the success of solar, and concluded that if no one else would, maybe I should.
And maybe this was an area in which I could make a difference.
What issue or gap does your research tackle?
A sustainable method that outperforms current methods on cost & quality must be developed to enable our transition to sustainable food production.
Plant Factories can address all these problems but need to become price-competitive to drive adoption. The key threshold for any sustainably technology to have a widespread impact is cost, if electric cars are expensive forever it doesn’t matter how well they can address our transport emissions, people just won’t be able to afford them.
The sustainable option has to at least reach price parity with existing methods to have a chance at reaching global adoption.
AGRA’s farms intend to be cheaper and better in every way in order to drive adoption.
The farms produce a consistent supply year-round independent of climate or weather, with 40% longer shelf-life, better conditions for farmers and higher quality sustainable produce while competing on cost with field agriculture.
Why did the evokeAG. Groundbreaker program catch your eye and what do you hope to get out of it?
Speaking at and attending evokeAG. in 2025 will provide opportunities to connect with researchers to advance controlled environment research – Australia can be a leader in this technology but much scientific research is required to enable price parity for all crop types.
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It will also allow me to connect with relevant investors to help complete our pilot, build our first commercial facility and franchise the technology to scale, view emerging innovations across agriculture that could feed into AGRA’s approach and strategy and meet potential customers for our pilot and future commercial facilities; both supermarket retailers and potential franchisees (growers).
What’s your best advice for fellow aspiring innovators in the agtech field?
Keep persevering, you’ll eventually figure it out.
What is the evokeAG. Groundbreaker Program?
Formerly known as the evokeAG. Future Young Leaders program, the evokeAG. Groundbreakers program was renamed in 2024 to better reflect the innovative and impactful leadership of its participants.
The 2025 program is proudly sponsored by Coles and will empower five emerging leaders in agrifood and related industries, guiding them to present their innovations at the evokeAG. 2025 event in Brisbane on 18-19 February. Participants receive mentoring and a post-event bursary, supporting their goals to enhance rural communities and advance Australian agriculture.
Participants span Australia and New Zealand and are aged between 18-30.
Tickets are now on sale for evokeAG. 2025 to be held on 18-19 February 2025 in Brisbane, Queensland. Following a sell-out event in 2024 we are encouraging delegates to secure their tickets, flights and accommodation early.
We look forward to seeing you in Brisbane for evokeAG. 2025. In the meantime, catch up on the other conversations about sustainability, climate resilience and the role of agtech in meeting those challenges from here.