#evokeAG. 2024

If global food waste were a country, it would be third largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind the United States of America and China. The scale of the problem is well quantified, and solutions exist, but for food systems entrepreneur and founder Abi Ramanan, barriers to implementation remain, and caution is needed as we embrace technologies like artificial intelligence.

With all the ideas, money and power in the world, how does Australia use its exceptional edge to be a global leader in agricultural production and sustainability? Two leaders of the Australian agritech scene – Justin Webb and Olympia Yarger – share their thoughts in a colourful debate.

AgriFutures evoke^AG. 2024 today welcomed back a sold-out crowd of over 1,800 delegates to the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, showcasing Australia’s exceptional edge to the Australian and international agrifood tech community.

AgriFutures evoke^AG. 2024 opened its doors today, welcoming over 1,800 delegates to the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, Western Australia, to share, connect, and collaborate for the future of Australia’s agrifood tech industry.

In the wake of the latest declared El Niño event, how can we produce the food and fibres we need, while still meeting our climate and nature positive goals? The agrifood sector needs to rapidly innovate to thrive in a changing world and climate – and natural capital is a big piece of the puzzle.  

She is a renegade founder transforming food waste management one maggot at time. He is a Harvard and Oxford Scholar, and ex-international rower. But are their views on what it will take to accelerate the Australian agrifood tech and innovation landscape as different as their CVs?

When Buffie Punch, a Noongar woman from Perth Western Australia, met Amanda Healy, proud Wonnarua woman from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and founder of fashion brand Kirrikin, she knew things were about to change.

Data and dollars are two key ingredients to build a robust agrifood tech and innovation landscape that creates meaningful change in food systems. But how can early-stage startups secure one without the other? Is this a chicken and egg scenario? Early stage agrifood tech venture capitalist and partner at The First Thirty, Antony Yousefian, muses on this dilemma.

A nice drop is in order for Onside after the Christchurch-based farm management app recently took out the AgTech and Digital category at the Wine Industry IMPACT Awards. The company was recognised for its ‘Track and Trace’ pilot project, which involved 90 winegrowers across four New South Wales (NSW) wine regions, putting its traceability technology to the test to improve biosecurity in various communities.

Leading entrepreneurs will share personal and business experiences at AgriFutures evoke^AG. 2024, as well as the successes – and the challenges – they’ve seen firsthand with the convergence of cultural Intellectual Property and western innovation.

In early-2023 CropX Technologies, a global developer of agronomic farm management solutions, had only a small number of remote employees in Australia. Now it has quadrupled in size and established an office location thanks to its recent acquisition of Green Brain, a prominent digital irrigation management solutions provider based in Adelaide, South Australia.

Things couldn’t get much warmer in the Southern Hemisphere and that can only mean one thing – AgriFutures evoke^AG. 2024 is firing up for the fourth year. Are you heading west in less than two weeks? We’ve put together a list of must-dos to help you squeeze every drop out of evoke^AG. 2024.