
Ask HN: Agriculture startups doing interesting work? - greenie_beans
Maybe I&#x27;m out of the loop, but agriculture seems to be an overlooked industry in the startup world, even though there is a ton of opportunity there.<p>What are some startups who are solving tough agricultural problems? Who are some more established players?<p>I&#x27;m curious about any ag startups, especially those attempting to curb climate change through agriculture. For instance, new takes on outdoor farming techniques (like Indigo), indoor farming startups, folks working on agricultural hardware, machine learning, organic farming, folks developing apps to help farmers, distribution&#x2F;sales&#x2F;marketing, etc.
======
tomhoward
I've been working on a hardware data logger device and web software platform
that monitors soil moisture and other environmental metrics that produce-
growers care about – soil temperature and conductivity (which indicates
salinity or fertiliser penetration), air/canopy temperature, rainfall,
irrigation, humidity, solar radiation, etc.

We've been working on the product for about 4-5 years (as a side project while
working on other things to pay the bills). Initially it was a smartphone-
connected device using Bluetooth and manual data retrieval, but we've just
reached production-ready stage of a newer version that uses the new LTE Cat-M1
cellular data protocol (which uses existing 4G cellular infrastructure but is
optimised for lower power and longer range).

So we now have a whole lot of these devices sitting in crops (E.g.,
grapevines, wheat, fruit/vegetables, nuts, sugar cane), some of them over 20km
from their nearest cell tower (you can extend the range further with high-gain
antennas but we haven't had to do that yet), automatically uploading all this
data and generating various data views (time series graphs and dashboards) to
help growers make decisions about when/how much to irrigate etc.

It can also do reactive/proactive stuff like detect when temperature close to
the surface drops to near 2°C overnight and send out frost warning alerts, and
over time we intend to make the data platform powerful enough that it can do
things like automate the switching on/off of irrigation pumps in response to
soil moisture level trends.

I don't have a website to point to yet. I'm working on a demo site now.

But I'd be interested to hear from anyone who is working on tech like this or
is interested to work on it or partner in some way (email address is in my
profile).

Despite having worked in the space for nearly 5 years, I'm still not sure why
this tech isn't more commonplace – i.e., why every professional grower isn't
already using something like this. This kind of tech has been around for a
long time, so we're not doing anything completely new, just doing it more
affordably and hopefully making better use of modern tech.

From what I've been able to learn about the market, it seems that the big
industrial-scale producers use this type of tech, though what they use is
costly and sophisticated to install/maintain. But for many smaller growers,
it's considered not important enough to make the investment, and they're happy
doing things the way they and the previous generations have always done it.

But with water scarcity becoming an issue in many parts of the world it will
become increasingly important for growers of all scales to use this kind of
tech to avoid water wastage.

We've also had the opportunity to trial the equipment with growers in Far-
North Queensland, inland from the Great Barrier Reef. The government and
industry bodies in that region are interested to see how this kind of tech
could be used to minimise over-watering leading to fertiliser run-off into the
sea, which is a contributor to coral bleaching.

So, yeah, that's what I'm doing. Happy to hear from anyone interested to know
more or work together.

~~~
elasticventures
this is really cool. i'm currently in Melbourne (but from the USA) --
[http://bit.ly/elasticventures-growpotbot](http://bit.ly/elasticventures-
growpotbot)

I posted on another thread -- but basically the innovation in this area was
stifled by lack of military applications in the USA and farmers "not being
real good at technology" and good ole' fashioned corruption in the academic
institutions.

If you'd like this to be full time - I know a guy that manages a tycoon
fortune and he might like to help you. hmu -
[http://elastic.ventures](http://elastic.ventures)

~~~
tomhoward
Strangely enough I'm in LA right now. In the U.S. for another 2.5 weeks. Will
ping you. Thanks for the comment.

------
davidhunter
I am the founder of Optimal: [http://optimal.ag](http://optimal.ag).

We are a team of engineers and scientists from DeepMind, Palantir, Oxford and
MIT. Our mission is to grow safer, healthier food by deploying fully
autonomous greenhouses outside every city on earth. We are backed by leading
deep technology funds, including Founders Fund.

We believe that high-tech greenhouses will be an important part of our
agricultural future, for improved human nutrition and as a hedge to climate
change, and we are doing everything we can to accelerate the deployment of new
farms around the world.

We are in stealth mode right now so there's not a huge amount about us online
but we've made strong progress with the core technology and I would be happy
to speak more about our work privately.

~~~
hbrundage
I spent a bunch of time modelling out the unit economics for autonomous
greenhouses and struggled to find any combination of technologies that could
even come close to competing with the current costs of field agriculture,
including labor. Do you folks need something key to change in the competitive
landscape (like climate change or very different immigration laws in the US)
to become profitable?

See [https://www.eater.com/2018/7/3/17531192/vertical-farming-
agr...](https://www.eater.com/2018/7/3/17531192/vertical-farming-agriculture-
hydroponic-greens) for an example of the costs for the case of indoor vertical
farms.

~~~
davidhunter
There’s a significant efficiency difference between high-tech greenhouses
(glasshouses) and warehouse (aka vertical) farms. High-tech greenhouses will
not compete with field farms for staple crops, but they are already profitably
supplying fresh produce in many countries.

~~~
hbrundage
Oh of course, and to be quite honest, I really hope you folks can succeed in
your mission. But, I still found that at least locally (in southern Ontario),
the unit costs of importing from California still make sense compared to
growing locally because of the cost of artificial lighting and the
difficulties growing year round. The big greenhouse operations locally grow a
premium product that can command a much higher price in order to justify the
capex compared to field agriculture or just importing. I assume that premium
price would have to go up even more to justify a big investment in automation,
right? That's why I was asking if expensive robotics are viable now vs reliant
on some change in the market dynamics.

~~~
jelliclesfarm
California’s lettuce production alone is a 3 billion dollar industry.

Entire Ag income in Netherlands is around 3 billion dollars. __

California lettuce farms have a year round growing season and we move from
Salinas to Yuma in winter. We grow organic lettuce with cover cropping and
crop rotation.

Glass houses are NOT more efficient than how we grow in CA. We have water
shortage and a labour problem. The main problem is labour.

We need robotics to solve our problem. Not data oriented Agtech. Most of the
Agtech startups are creating a new sector that didn’t exist before. They are
not addressing our throbbing pain point.

Labour. Labour. Labour.

Even automation solutions needs engineers who need to draw 6 figures to work
and live in the Bay Area. It’s still cheaper to hire minimum wage labour and
make human beings do repetitive manual labour.

There is nothing cheaper than FREE. Sunlight is free. We don’t need energy
hungry indoor automation in CA. In east coast maybe..in the frozen northlands
of Canada maybe..but CA is an Ag state. We do upwards of 45 billion in Ag
income every year. We need _real_ solutions. Every Agtech company wants a
piece of the 45 billion dollar pie. They are not working to make it bigger. CA
farms are consumers of new tech. Without ROI.

Agtech startups need to Keep It Simple.

Ping me if anyone wants to discuss this further.

 __[..] GDP From Agriculture in Netherlands decreased to 2544 EUR Million in
the second quarter of 2019 from 3071 EUR Million in the first quarter of 2019.
GDP From Agriculture in Netherlands averaged 2641.87 EUR Million from 1995
until 2019, reaching an all time high of 3343 EUR Million in the third quarter
of 2016 and a record low of 1860 EUR Million in the fourth quarter of
1996.[..]

~~~
abstract7
I'm not in ag but anybody working on a modular elevated track system? Let the
sun shine right thru. Automate a ton of physical tasks, like that one
gardening startup (forgot name). Some central unit coordinates it all and
offers an api, that way third-parties can program specific bots for specific
tasks and its all orchestrated without collisions. Allow a whole industry of
startups to build on such physical 'Operating Systems'. Seems so obvious I
must have seen it in a sci-fi movie or something and I forgot.

------
mikorym
This is exactly what I am working on. Using climate data for more efficient
farming, in a nutshell.

Established players are like sledge hammers. They are successful if they are
hard working and have some competitive edge (could be labour cost, could be
local knowledge, could be profit reinvestment, could be rights to varieties).

Farmers are the most efficient managers you'll ever find. They don't need
management, so IMHO any startup that tries a "smart farm" is underestimating
the intelligence of the farm managers.

The sweet spot is immediate deliverables in terms of cost saving or other
forms of optimisation. In the time of my grandfather, the profit margin was
50% and a flip of the coin whether you'll actually get anything to the market.
Today it is <10% and you better know what you are doing.

The retailers are the real money spinners; if you want to make your money at
the primary level you better like the social aspect of farming as well.

Don't misunderstand, there is plenty tech, but it is probably more important
whether you are willing to work on a Sunday. Take from it what you will; my
opinions tend to somewhat unique (in this regard). For example, don't waste
your time with "organic farming". It's a marketing term and actually not very
descriptive (vs. "organic chemistry"). Sure, you could make money, but in
marketing.

The toughest problems are pretty damn interesting though and are basically
going to cross polinate with the most cutting edge climate change research.

~~~
abledon
Chicken coops that are picked up at night by 6 heavy duty drones and flown to
a new part of the field —- sign me up

~~~
mikorym
Is this then called 3D free range chicken?

~~~
abledon
free++, since their 'range' of freedom is constantly being changed to a new
location in the field, plus before, they still had 3 dimensions of range,
hopping up into coop at night (+z) and hopping down during day (-z). I'm
talking about organic farm chickens here, not factory farm.

------
ttarabula
I'd recommend following AgFunder News:
[https://agfundernews.com](https://agfundernews.com) (RSS, Twitter, whatever
you like). I find that they cover the industry fairly well (or at least link
to enough interesting things to get you a foothold). You're totally right that
this is an overlooked industry, though make no mistake, many of the big
players (your John Deeres and such) have very sophisticated R&D and
engineering initiatives pursuing market opportunities in a variety of ag tech
realms.

~~~
jeffreyrogers
> though make no mistake, many of the big players (your John Deeres and such)
> have very sophisticated R&D and engineering initiatives pursuing market
> opportunities in a variety of ag tech realms

Seconding this. It's easy to think that because SV engineers aren't aware of
or don't work on an industry that not much happens in it, but there's a lot of
technology in agriculture already. For example, modern tractors can drive
themselves, and plant seeds and apply fertilizer exactly where needed using
GPS localization. This isn't even that new either. And that's just one highly
visible example. There's tons of other R&D in seed companies and other parts
of agriculture.

------
jmc734
Indigo Agriculture (indigoag.com) - Boston/Memphis/Remote

Shameless plug for Indigo Agriculture (indigoag.com). We're expanding on a
number of different fronts with the central goal of increasing farmer
profitability while reducing the environmental impact of production. Here are
some of the groups at Indigo that are hiring: \- Marketplace: matching growers
producing high quality crops with buyers who need that quality. Giving farmers
a reason to produce crops that are better than commodity standard, produced in
better ways. \- Transport: contract trucking services to allow farms to sell
their products, efficiently, well beyond their current reach \-
Agronomy/Precision Agriculture: giving farmers the tools and expertise they
need to improve their efficiency while reducing environmental impact. \-
Remote Sensing: supplementing Indigo's and growers' knowledge of fields with
continuously updating global observations from satellites \- Carbon
Sequestration (terraton.org): sequestering a trillion tons of carbon dioxide
into agricultural soils to improve soil quality while slowing the march of
climate change

If you are interested, please apply on our website or feel free to reach out
to me directly at jmcdonald@indigoag.com. I'm a software engineer who works
across a number of the above groups. I'd love to chat or put you in touch with
the right person.

~~~
samcodes
None of the jobs are explicitly remote - any heuristics for identifying which
roles are remote friendly?

~~~
hownowbrowncow
I work on the marketplace team—most of our software engineering roles are
remote friendly, especially on the marketplace and transport teams. I
recommend applying as we have a strong ratio of remote folks and can place you
in teams where that’s well supported.

------
elasticventures
[http://growbot.online](http://growbot.online) (GrowPotBot) YC W2018 is an
open source positronic (AI) aeroponic residential and lightweight industrial
gardening appliance.

the tech stack fits into multiple platforms, we spent the last few years in
China and Malaysia understanding value engineering, manufacturing logistics.

we're hoping to ship in major retailers starting in 2020 with an incredibly
low < $100 'in cabinet' unit that can produce peppers, tomatoes and cannabis
(or whatever you want). the primary differentiator is the cost and
intelligence of the unit targeted at high yield strains of food and medicine
in small spaces.

we're hoping to make them so cheap we can nearly give them away and make
indoor urban farming "a thing" before climate change really kicks into full
gear and destroys outdoor gardens.

positronic "closed loop" garden, happy to share what we're working on with
other like minded people and collaborating with other growers internationally
on open-data standards for storing this data and compiled models.

~~~
thatcat
Sounds like a very promising venture. I like that you're willing to share the
data and are offering an intelligence unit.

Have you thought of implementing experimental designs at scale? like you're
intelligence unit could organize large scale controlled experiments on
possible improvements in technique/process/genetics with willing participants.
Since all the systems are controlled, closed loop, and use the same equipment
a lot of variance that is present in typical ag experiments would be avoided.
This combined with a high number of participants to replicate the experiment
could offer a robust platform for rapid improvement via citizen science.

~~~
elasticventures
Thanks @thatcat .. I need to credit micckey at Post Scarcity Robotics for the
inspiration to collaborate, that's been my primary driver the last few months
to find other people who are like minded and work with them.
[https://github.com/limikael/ideas/blob/master/PostScarcityRo...](https://github.com/limikael/ideas/blob/master/PostScarcityRobotics.md)

My primary focus is on the scale, implementing something that is both safe,
easy to operate (idiot proof) and environmentally friendly (negative carbon
footprint).

My goal is to be able to self realize an economy of scale as it pertains to my
own AI/IA interests. Robotic assembly, etc. but not necessarily bringing it to
foxconn -- at the same time secure enough that if you want to run it over tor
and grow psychadelic cactus in the desert you can do that too -- although it
will require loading your own custom software.

I'm a 3rd generation farming family (in general ornamental agriculture) and
I've been designing these systems myself for years. I expect humans to screw
up this planet in the next 10-20 years and so these are what we'll need to
survive in our bunkers; I don't want any shitty drm or anything.

The AI is also a bit complex; but the goal is to allow the units to work
together in a quorum for fault tolerance. I literally expect these devices to
keep people alive, and hopefully eliminate food deserts at the same time.

------
jasode
FBN was recently started in 2014 by 2 guys from the Silicon Valley area. So
far, they focus on data analytics (e.g. seed yields).

There are various articles about them and youtube videos:

[https://www.google.com/search?q=FBN+"farmers+business+networ...](https://www.google.com/search?q=FBN+"farmers+business+network"+Amol+Deshpande+Charles+Baron)

[https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fbn+farmers+bus...](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fbn+farmers+business+network)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oML9yLjTfk8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oML9yLjTfk8)

~~~
tankdoan
I’m an engineer at FBN.

We do more than data these days; it’s best to say we do anything we can to
help farmers’ bottom line.

In the past year or so we’ve started offering health insurance, started a seed
company, and brokerage.

That means we can help farmers with their inputs before the season, decisions
during the season with data analysis, and selling outputs afterwords.

And of course we’re hiring!

------
estsauver
I think we're doing interesting work at Apollo Agriculture
([https://apolloagriculture.com](https://apolloagriculture.com))!

We work with smallholder farmers in subsaharan africa (currently Kenya) to
help them transition to commercial farming. Basically, we sell them a package
of the seed, fertilizer, advice, insurance, and training that they need to
substantially improve their yield and profits. We're moving towards helping
farmers shift to a diversified blend of crops and providing market access.

(In most of the developed world, these are all provided by different players,
but the challenges of a developing market push us to offer them all together.)

If you're interested in chatting, either drop a comment here or shoot me an
email at (earl at apolloagriculture dot com).

~~~
samvher
I'm interested in chatting and have emailed you earlier but never got a
response. Our organisation (precisionag.org) also works in Kenya among other
countries, we provide smallholder farmers with personalized agronomic advice
over SMS and voice systems. We're always looking for partners and we use a lot
of experimental economics to fine tune and validate our approaches. (One of
our founders just won the Nobel prize for economic sciences.)

------
aaron-santos
I'm the data science lead at [http://agrian.com](http://agrian.com). Shoot me
a message if you want to chat (email in profile). I love talking about this
topic and trading notes.

~~~
gallamine
That link doesn't seem to work, btw.

~~~
aaron-santos
Thanks for the heads up. It redirects to
[https://home.agrian.com/](https://home.agrian.com/).

------
ljsmith93
Opinion coming from someone who studied Agribusiness but works in high
technology.

Farmwise.io is doing some really excellent work. We have a big problem these
days with getting low cost labor in California that our Ag producers have
traditionally relied on. I also find the team at planet.com to be doing
incredibly valuable work that has some really profound and broad applications
for agriculture.

------
liveproper
You need to look north:

[https://www.farmersedge.ca/](https://www.farmersedge.ca/) ; precision
farming, exited by Kleiner Perkins via sale to Prem Watsa of Fairfax Financial

[https://seedotrun.com/](https://seedotrun.com/) ; autonomous farming

[https://www.seedmaster.ca](https://www.seedmaster.ca) ; precision farming

These companies actually have customers and / or are well on their way to
commercialization

~~~
tonyarkles
Very cool to see these posted here (they're in my backyard). Interestingly,
DOT and Seedmaster have a very close relationship. Last time I was out there,
DOT equipment was being fabricated by folks in the Seedmaster shop.

~~~
liveproper
started by the same dude, share common ownership

------
jordankoschei
I know of two:

[https://artemisag.com/](https://artemisag.com/) — Artemis (previously
Agrilyst) won TechCrunch Disrupt SF a few years ago, and is building a
management platform for enterprise-scale indoor farms.

[https://farmtogether.com/](https://farmtogether.com/) — FarmTogether is a
platform that allows anyone to invest in US farmland

(Source: I was an early employee at Artemis, and a friend from high school is
a cofounder of FarmTogether)

------
vinay427
FarmLogs (YC W12). It was the site of my first internship and I really
couldn't have had a better experience.

[https://farmlogs.com](https://farmlogs.com)

------
ageofwant
Agriculture is the single most destructive human activity. It is the primary
cause of the extraordinary biodiversity loss we had the last 80 years.

We lost half of all life in numbers
[https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/oct-19-2019-understanding-
th...](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/oct-19-2019-understanding-the-
anthropocene-extinction-regenerating-cartilage-and-
more-1.5324707/understanding-extinction-humanity-has-destroyed-half-the-life-
on-earth-1.5324721), agriculture is the primary cause of that.

Look with your own eyes what is left only 150 years after we arrived in
Western Australia,
[https://earth.google.com/web/@-33.86075979,117.66498741,330....](https://earth.google.com/web/@-33.86075979,117.66498741,330.68848829a,331368.4989268d,35y,355.03129926h,0t,0r)
and most of that happened in the last 50 years.

So anything we can do to increase yield, and restoring current agricultural
land to original habitat, as far as that is possible, is a very worthy cause.

------
wcchandler
The worst part about startups and agriculture is trying to bridge the two. I
spend a LOT of time thinking about the shortcomings in agriculture and how I'd
do it better. So many areas for advancing a current technology. But then I'm
often hindered by a simple question -- "Can I turn this into a startup?" I use
Paul Graham's definition [0] as a litmus test and always fail to complete the
necessary circle.

I've recently decided "to hell with it" and am diving in. I'm hustling as a
hemp farmer now. Learning a lot. Especially about how to actually become a
farmer. The different types of farmers. How other conventional farmers can
actually make it.

I'm coming up with lots of ideas, but still no silver bullets. No unicorns. I
see all these companies posted here and agree that most will be very
beneficial and influential in the future. But will any see 10% weekly growths?
Unlikely. But I'm always enthusiastic and hopeful that they will.

Right now the average age for a US farmer is 59 [1]. Assuming they can make it
to retirement, we'll begin cresting in farmer turn-over in 5 years. The
problem is many will be selling out to the highest bidder if they don't
already have somebody lined up to take over the reigns. That will be the
already established, large, industrial scale commercial farming operation.

So back to my original point, how can we bridge the startup world with
agriculture? No idea. But I'm hopeful one of these companies do.

0:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html)

1: [https://modernfarmer.com/2018/06/by-the-numbers-state-of-
the...](https://modernfarmer.com/2018/06/by-the-numbers-state-of-the-
independent-farmer/)

~~~
deedubaya
I’d be surprised if your average small/med farmer retires at 65 in the US. I’d
guess an average above 70.

------
mooneater
HN-style site for agtech and foodtech:
[https://feedit.agfunder.com/](https://feedit.agfunder.com/)

Im with Agfunder, we built this with Django, with thanks to
[https://github.com/nikolak/django_reddit](https://github.com/nikolak/django_reddit)

------
rectangletangle
I did some interesting work in this space. With several thousand seasons of
data I used an MLP network to visualize phenotypic plasticity (how plants
react to a range of environmental conditions).

Accurately cleaning the input data proved to be extremely important, because
there's a tremendous amount of "noise" at the individual level when dealing
with living organisms, so lots of high-quality data is necessary to tease out
relationships. Establishing causality was also important, considering the
potential for confounding variables.

It also gave me a chance to brush up on my React/front end skills, but that
was more ancillary.

[https://sproutling.ai/blog/harvest-
simulations?jm2](https://sproutling.ai/blog/harvest-simulations?jm2)

[https://sproutling.ai/blog/growth-
simulations?jm2](https://sproutling.ai/blog/growth-simulations?jm2)

------
Townley
You might be interested in IronOx: [http://ironox.com/](http://ironox.com/)

Indoor produce grown "by robots with love"

------
ShMcK
I'm an application developer at Semios (Vancouver, BC).

Semios has one of the largest IoT networks in agriculture to gather and
analyze data to help farmers drive data-driven solutions. The network collects
micro-climate data to predict disease and pest risk, alert growers of risks in
real-time, and help improve water efficiency.

We have a complex stack composed of hardware, embedded, applications, data
engineers and data scientists. We're hiring!

As an example, Semios helps growers reduce pest populations organically by
disrupting the insect communication channels using pheromone released by IoT
devices in the field. We track the effectiveness of pheromone using cameras in
the field, and machine-learning algorithms to count pests.

[https://www.semios.com](https://www.semios.com)

~~~
wanderingNewfie
and we're hiring! [https://semios.com/jobs/](https://semios.com/jobs/)

~~~
tixocloud
Interested to know more about the data science infrastructure. Is there
someone you could connect me with?

------
shoyer
I worked for The Climate Corporation when it was acquired by Monsanto (now
Bayer) for $1B.

There is certainly plenty of potential for innovative tech in agriculture, but
it’s a really tough space. Machine learning and big data are not magic
bullets. The level of noise in experimental measurements is very high, which
makes it difficult to prove the effectiveness of almost any intervention.

Climate Corp did (and still does) sell a SAS product advising growing
decisions based on machine learning. But the price of that product has fallen
dramatically over time, and now it’s nearly free. The premium product now has
a _list_ price of $1/acre vs. expected grower revenue of ~$700/acre (for corn
in the US). What does that say about the value the software provides?

~~~
jelliclesfarm
Is this FieldView?

Well..hold my beer! Field view collected so much data that the farmer doesn’t
need(aka can’t use). And paid for it.

There is so much data in the field that is worth more than the crop that is
being sold. So..no..the farmer doesn’t get to monetize it. Farmers shouldn’t
have to pay for any data collected that isn’t used by him but can be
commoditized.

In fact farmers should be PAID for allowing companies to extract data. They
are mining data from our fields and making US pay for it. It’s like how Tom
Sawyer painted his fence!

~~~
shoyer
There is undoubtedly some value in this data, but it is far less than you
think. Despite the hype about big data, it’s hard to draw firm conclusions
from any uncontrolled observational trial.

Consider how often nutrition studies contradict each other. We still don’t
know for sure if it’s better to eat less red meat!

Having spent a bit of time working in this space, I can assure you that it is
basically the same scenario. If Climate Corp could prove that the data they
are collecting with FieldView was valuable, they would be making a heck of a
lot more money.

------
gus_massa
Take a look at the comments in
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20910845](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20910845)
(36 points, 44 days ago, 19 comments) , perhaps the farmers use more
technology than you think.

------
lchengify
[https://www.descarteslabs.com](https://www.descarteslabs.com) \- Satellite
imagery for predictive intelligence, lots of work in agtech for things like
crop yields.

------
LifeIsBio
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned AppHarvest yet. The NYT[1] recently covered
them.

Their investor list in and of itself is pretty interesting.

Plus, their building out of Morehead, Ky. Morehead was the “big city” when I
was growing up, so it’s cool to see innovation there.

[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/business/appharvest-
green...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/business/appharvest-greenhouse-
kentucky-agriculture.html)

------
NickBusey
I am the CTO of Grownetics and we are about to open source our stack.
[https://grownetics.co/](https://grownetics.co/)

------
kamesstory
Definitely want to take the time to throw out a huge recommendation for FBN
(Farmers Business Network), a KPCB/Google Ventures backed startup that's doing
really cool work in data analysis + aggregation + insights for farmers.

For the sake of clarity, I was an intern there, but I objectively think that
their approach is very insightful and hits a lot of key points that many ag
startups get wrong. Two of my biggest personal takeaways were that obsession
with farm yields doesn't actually translate very well to increased profits,
because there are so many other factors and costs (and risk) in farm
operations. Furthermore, because of all these other operations (e.g.
researching better seed varieties, buying inputs, loans in order to buy inputs
and hope that they can be repaid later when harvest time comes), there is a
huge need to address pervasive and complex issues with regards to the entire
farming enterprise, not just the yield portion. FBN does a really great job at
tackling the holistic approach, which I think really helps increase the
effectiveness of FBN's product and makes it a really powerful tool.

Definitely check it out! [https://www.fbn.com](https://www.fbn.com)

~~~
jelliclesfarm
Two thumbs up. FBN has been doing remarkable progress and have taken
innovative approaches to farming and Ag. They really do help farmers. I wish
them the very best and hope they go from strength to strength. I really do
appreciate what they do.

------
darrennix
[http://picktrace.com/](http://picktrace.com/) (YCS15) was in our batch. Both
the founders grew up on a farm and build tools for people to use out in the
field like how to accurately keep track the number of baskets of strawberries
a worker picked so they get paid the right amount when there's no WiFi or
cellular connection.

I always thought it was interesting.

------
benj1502
Check [https://www.tend.com/](https://www.tend.com/) out, this startup has
gone public since 2016, I'm one of their beta users. Its a suite that help you
make growing plan, keeping track of almost everything needed during your
farming processes, your plants, your tasks, when to harvest, your soil test
records,... They've been developing some other tools that will eventually help
you sell your farm produces. Here's what they say "We’re a small startup
that’s passionate about building tools to help organic farmers grow quality
food and run successful farming businesses. We started Tend with farmers in
mind, and are proud to have team members who’ve farmed throughout the U.S. and
Latin America. We’re also fortunate to have a first-class technology and
engineering team who’ve spent many years working in startups and larger tech
companies. Most of all, we’re proud of our close relationships with the
organic and diversified farmers who use Tend to manage their farm."

~~~
vinicius_ng
Hey benj1502 -

I've heard about Tend from my friend farmers but haven't try it out. The
features from the website [1] looks like what I need.

[1] [https://www.tend.com/page/how-it-
works.html](https://www.tend.com/page/how-it-works.html)

Edit: wow the blogs are really nice
[https://www.tend.com/blog.html](https://www.tend.com/blog.html)

~~~
benj1502
Give it a try vinicius_ng, lemme know if I can help, I'm quite familiar with
it now.

------
janee
I work at [https://www.agrigateone.com/](https://www.agrigateone.com/)

We aggregate data for growers and buyers of fresh perishables to better
facilitate trades.

Must say agri / food is a fascinating industry to work in.

The tech problems don't seem to be well known or often solved when compared to
other industries I've worked in...which is both awesome and frustrating haha

~~~
bharath28
@janee - This is an industry I am trying to learn more about and get into as
well. Would love to get some advice. Is there a way to get in touch? My email
is on my profile if you'd prefer to not leave info on here.

------
bstela
I work at [https://tech.vidacycle.com](https://tech.vidacycle.com) . We are a
small startup building a set of tools to monitor vines, soils and fruits. We
help farmers to gain knowledge about the ecosystem they manage so they can
make better decisions.

What an exciting thread! I've seen really cool projects here

------
gtallen1187
[edit: I overlooked the direct call-out to Indigo in the original post, my
mistake. Nevertheless, I'll leave this as perhaps its helpful to others who
don't know the company.]

Indigo Agriculture - [https://www.indigoag.com/](https://www.indigoag.com/)

I worked for a satellite imagery start-up who was acquired by Indigo in
December of 2018. I'm obviously biased, but i can genuinely say that the level
of innovation taking place throughout this company - towards so many different
parts of the agricultural system - has not ceased to astound me since I
joined.

They've managed to capture/create/cultivate one of those unique scenarios that
rarely happens in any industry: a scenario where all participants benefit.
They're helping consumers gain access to healthy, responsibly-sourced food,
they're helping to make it profitable for the farmer to provide these foods,
and they're helping to make it beneficial to the planet to produce them.

They started as a microbial seed treatment company. By coating seeds with
naturally-occurring microbial organisms, these microbes would help crops by
making them more resistant to harsh conditions like drought, heat, etc. Kind
of like probiotics, but for plants.

Since then, they've expanded into many different parts of the agricultural
system, but perhaps their most innovative & potentially impactful contribution
is their most recent: the Terraton initiative. They're helping to remove a
trillion tons of carbon from the atmosphere by making it financially
beneficial for farmers to adopt regenerative agricultural practices to bring
this carbon out of the air and into the soil.

I could go on, but the videos and content on their website describe their
mission and their work better than I can. I'm really excited about the work
we're doing there - I hope you'll think so too.

------
uuilly
[http://www.bluerivertechnology.com/](http://www.bluerivertechnology.com/)

Now owned by John Deere. Goal is 10x reduction in chemicals while doubling
yields. We’re deep in ml & robotics and our creations scale across the deere
fleet touching most of the arable land in the world.

~~~
jelliclesfarm
Hi! What is blue river technology’s see and spray tech doing now? It
disappeared from Salinas lettuce fields after JD bought them out.

~~~
uuilly
Hey! We’re moving it to row crops to save herbicide. I miss Salinas but stoked
with what we’re doing in the Midwest.

------
ironfootnz
I've seen the focus on the thread, fascinating.

The major focus is: To produce more.

I haven't seen one to Waste less. Inverse the balance sheet.

~~~
elasticventures
We're talking about synthetically accelerating organic life here.

If the byproduct is cleaner air through photosynthesis generated from
renewable power is that really a problem? Isn't that just efficiency?

The concern isn't the waste -- it's that a lot of these industrial growers are
building proprietary technology monoliths growing "stuff that looks like food"
but isn't actually all that healthy and the public burden is falling on
nationalized healthcare systems.

As such - there isn't enough work in the open-source sharing of telemetry data
and experience between systems.

This is why industrial ag=tech owned by big global ag companies must be
replaced with something that anybody and everybody can access.

The soil on the planet is in serious peril.

------
waterposting
[https://www.parabel.com/](https://www.parabel.com/) Florida based startup
using water lentils to create a future plant-protein platform. Crop doubles in
size every 24-36 hours allowing farms to harvest every day. 10x yield compared
to soy or pea proteins.

------
rdlecler1
I'm one of the founding partners of AgFunder. You can see see a lot of
startups in our annual investor report:

[https://agfunder.com/research/agrifood-tech-investing-
report...](https://agfunder.com/research/agrifood-tech-investing-report-2018/)

------
shoguning
The big ones I don't see are:

Plenty - Indoor agriculture (raised over $200m)

[[https://www.plenty.ag](https://www.plenty.ag)]

Pivot Bio - Nitrogen fixation with engineered microbes

[[https://www.pivotbio.com/](https://www.pivotbio.com/)]

------
raptortech
I used to work here:
[https://www.greensightag.com/](https://www.greensightag.com/)

They do autonomous UAVs for agricultural monitoring, using multi-spectral
imaging and a computer vision pipeline to detect issues before farmers can.

------
adam_cadien
Hey I'm the lead roboticist with [https://farmwise.io/](https://farmwise.io/)

We're building autonomous devices for sustainable farming at scale; that means
weeding without chemicals, reducing fertilizer utilization and building new
methods for planting/harvesting.

For a roboticist this translates to building high quality odometry, actuation
and navigation stacks. We have novel backend and real time systems challenges
as well. I've worked on autonomous systems for several years now and have seen
how effective solid software engineers are at building solutions in the
robotics space.

Our company is product focused and has devices operating on farms today, feel
free to reach out with any questions.

------
catwell
[https://en.agricool.co](https://en.agricool.co) is a French startup
perfecting its technology to grow fruit (they focus on strawberries) in
containers, within cities, using very little water. They raised €25M last
year.

------
ph0rque
My side project is AutoMicroFarm
([https://automicrofarm.com](https://automicrofarm.com)). Currently working on
[https://edible.estate/](https://edible.estate/)

------
tmshapland
Tule helps farmers make irrigation decisions. We install a proprietary
research-based sensor in farmers' fields. The sensor measures the water use
and water stress of the plants in an entire field. Tule uses the field-scale
plant data, as well as cutting-edge artificial intelligence models, to provide
farmers with irrigation recommendations. Our customers span from the
winemakers who farm California's most prized vineyards to the growers at the
largest scale almond operations in the Central Valley. Tule is a profitable
company whose mission is to help generations of farmers maximize production
and more efficiently manage natural resources.

www.tuletechnologies.com

~~~
enjoiful
Hey Tom — nice to see you around. Dan from InnoVint here.

~~~
tmshapland
Hi Dan!

------
DishankZala
Hi,

I am looking for people in the image/satellite mapping industry. The idea is
to map Indian farmland according to the survey no and provide the data
directly to the farmer. Stack the data with the crop, soil, weather, market,
buyer and it could be a solution to the whole Agri sector. If it is further
mapped with land type data, Land purchase, subsidy, infra development red tape
can be reduced to the extreme and the whole process could become transparent.

I have a couple of startups in mind who have the tech platform, but not the
combined application stack.

I am looking for someone from a tech background to help with finalizing the
whole setup. Connect me over at dishank.zala@gmail.com

------
jelliclesfarm
You can find it all here. Definitive landscape guide maps for both Farm Agtech
and Indoor Agtech. I don’t think they missed a whole lot. Pretty sure there
are more than a few that are in stealth mode. But this about sums it up.

1600 companies Agtech landscape map:
[https://agfundernews.com/2019-06-04-agtech-
landscape-2019-16...](https://agfundernews.com/2019-06-04-agtech-
landscape-2019-1600-startups.html)

1000+ companies indoor Agtech landscape map: [http://mixingbowlhub.com/inside-
indoor-agtech/](http://mixingbowlhub.com/inside-indoor-agtech/)

------
DishankZala
Hi, I am looking for people in the image/satellite mapping industry. The idea
is to map Indian farmland according to the survey no and provide the data
directly to farmer. Stack the data with crop, soil, weather, market, buyer and
it could be a solution to whole agri sector.

If it is further mapped with land type data, Land purchase, subsidy, infra
development red tape can be reduced to the extreme and whole process could
become transparent.

I have couple of stratups in mind who have the tech platform, but not the
combined application stack.

I am looking for someone from tech backgroud to help with finalizing the whole
setup. Connect me over at dishank.zala@gmail.com

------
dgacmu
ecoation - [https://www.ecoation.com/](https://www.ecoation.com/) \- robots
for greenhouses (monitoring & analytics) - vancouver

robotany / fifth season -
[https://www.fifthseasonfresh.com/](https://www.fifthseasonfresh.com/) \-
[https://www.cmu.edu/energy/news-
multimedia/2018/robotany.htm...](https://www.cmu.edu/energy/news-
multimedia/2018/robotany.html) \- vertical greenhouses - Pittsburgh

------
winstonne
On the farmer to consumer side, I've been using marketwagon for my dairy meat
and produce and really like their products and business model.
[https://marketwagon.com/pages/market-wagon-about-
us](https://marketwagon.com/pages/market-wagon-about-us)

Its kinda a mash of Amazon food delivery and community supported agriculture.
If you want to see smaller farms thrive, they have a pretty compelling
service. So far they are Midwest only but hopefully they can expand, or
similar services can start up in other regions.

------
montalbano
AeroFarms in Boston are one of the foremost aeroponic indoor food growth
facilities, they do some interesting software too:

[https://aerofarms.com/](https://aerofarms.com/)

------
yormi
www.orisha.io (In french) www.products.orisha.io

We are a modest startup that aims at developping tools for smaller farmers. We
developed a greenhouse growing assistant that helps the community-supported
agriculture folks.

We are currently considering developping: * Automating irrigation with
tensiometers (humidity sensors). And potentially use forecast and solar
radiation. * A production management tool * A project to help reduce the use
of fossil energy in greenhouse heating

And for the functional programming enthusiasts out there: We are currently
hiring !

Contact me for more info: guillaume@orisha.io

------
cvrcrpxchng
Cover Crop Exchange
[https://covercropexchange.com](https://covercropexchange.com)

Providing a marketplace for buyers and sellers of cover crop seeds. We deal
with licensing, shipping/logistics, ordering, payouts, etc. Diversify your
farming income by growing and selling cover crop seeds.

hybrid85 https:://hybrid85.com

$85/unit Non-GMO (Conventional) seed corn. Maximize your profitability by
lowering your input costs. Utilizing off-patent genetics that perform as well
as "the big guys".

~~~
cvrcrpxchng
Oops! Correct link for hybrid85 is:

[https://hybrid85.com](https://hybrid85.com)

(can't find the edit button on hacker news)

------
georgegearhart
I run the product team for [https://farmdog.ag/](https://farmdog.ag/) Our
mission is to significantly reduce the use of pesticides.

------
benhoyt
I co-founded a beehive monitor startup with my brothers in New Zealand (they
run it now): [https://hivemind.nz](https://hivemind.nz)

It's an electronic device that sits underneath your beehives and weighs the
amount of honey in the hive, sending data back via satellite modem (because
beehives are often remote, so cellular doesn't always work). It also measures
a bunch of other important stuff important for bee health: temperature,
humidity, bee activity.

------
lightedman
A long while ago I did LED lighting research (hence my name) and specialized
vertical farming techniques which would drastically reduce land usage and
resource usage, and could be entirely solar-powered in some parts of the
world.

Too bad the owners of that business sold it for cheap and my work somehow got
lost. Not like I couldn't recreate it all from my mind, but it certainly isn't
in full-scale use today, just trial setups in a couple of countries which
might still be operational.

------
david-gpu
[https://www.agrobot.com](https://www.agrobot.com) is developing a robot to
pick strawberries. Pretty sophisticated, too.

------
isoprophlex
I'm doing some work for a startup that wants to automate greenhouse climate
control.

The software automatically manages lighting, climate, irrigation based on long
term growth strategies, real time sensor data and energy prices.

This saves time spent manually managing greenhouse climate, and money due to
improved crop and energy management.

We're hiring! Looking for a data scientist with a mind for optimization
problems. The Netherlands, Delft region.

~~~
rdeboo
You must be jeroen

~~~
isoprophlex
Maybe I am, maybe I ain't... ;)

------
guessmyname
Just yesterday I got invited to interview at AgriTask [1].

> _An AG-management platform that turns agriculture data into smart tools for
> planning and decision making._

I don’t know much about them aside from this line from one of their
recruiters; check them out if you want.

By the way, they are hiring a couple of remote workers if anyone is
interested.

[1] [https://www.agritask.com/](https://www.agritask.com/)

~~~
ilyaeck
Source/go-to link? The website doesn't seem to mention any hiring.

~~~
guessmyname
I don’t have a linkable source because I was invited via email by one of their
recruiters.

However, if you search the name of the company along with the word “hiring” it
returns the following:

• [https://www.peersight.in/job/agritask-software-
engineer](https://www.peersight.in/job/agritask-software-engineer)

Although it seems that the job has already been fulfilled, according to this
post on LinkedIn:

•
[https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/1073965883/](https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/1073965883/)

Which is weird because they contacted me less than 24 hours ago.

------
AGTfan
I'm with [https://www.agworld.com](https://www.agworld.com) \- a platform that
connects farmers with agronomists and other advisors and helps them manage
their farm data. Everything with the aim of enabling farmers to make more
profitable decisions.

We just had our 10 year anniversary.. it's been a long road but definitely
very rewarding!

------
biofrack
I'm a co-founder of biofrack: [https://biofrack.com](https://biofrack.com)

We use fracking techniques to restructure and amend soil at shallow depths
with biochar. This improves drainage, allows for deep application of slow
release fertilizer, and is a carbon negative process that sequesters carbon
deeper than would ever occur naturally.

------
mileskennefick
Not a startup but Cisco is testing wireless-connected monitoring systems for
cows and a robotic milking machine [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-
telecoms-5g-cows/5g-conne...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-
telecoms-5g-cows/5g-connected-cows-test-milking-parlor-of-the-future-
idUSKCN1RN1IY)

------
grizzles
Speaking as a customer. I want an any sized farmbot. I'd buy that product in a
second. I even offered a bounty in the farmbot forums recently:

[https://forum.farmbot.org/t/any-size-farmbot-with-a-cash-
bou...](https://forum.farmbot.org/t/any-size-farmbot-with-a-cash-bounty-lets-
kill-the-pesticide-industry/5540)

------
mr_overalls
BinMeasure is using LIDAR units and some clever feed-shape algorithms to
calculate the feed volume remaining in agricultural feed bins. Instead of
sending a person out to climb the bins and look in the top (the current
method), you get the info on a mobile phone app.

[https://www.binmeasure.com/](https://www.binmeasure.com/)

~~~
LyndsySimon
I’m very interested in hearing more about this - I messaged your team on
Facebook yesterday, but haven’t heard back from them yet.

My family is heavily involved in ag, and I have several close friends and
relatives involved in the poultry business specifically. I see some ways that
this could be marketed both directly to poultry growers and to producers.
Producers should be interested in very large deployments, while growers have
their own incentives that may not be obvious outside the business.

I’d love if we could chat. You can reach me here, or by email at lyndsy@<my
user name>.com

------
fillskills
Looks like no one has mentioned Nori: [https://nori.com/](https://nori.com/).
They are doing good work around creating a marketplace where you can buy
carbon credits. From their site: "Nori’s platform makes it straightforward for
companies to pay farmers for storing carbon in soil."

~~~
dcustodio
I wonder how many people will actually buy this. Personally, I would rather
get a box full of veggies than some internet karma.

------
elasticventures
It's worth posting this article on this thread for anybody interested why the
high tech ag industry is retarded.

[https://www.businessinsider.com.au/mit-media-lab-personal-
fo...](https://www.businessinsider.com.au/mit-media-lab-personal-food-
computers-dont-work-fake-staff-say-2019-9?r=US&IR=T)

------
breck
Here's one I just saw:
[https://www.blueoceanbarns.com](https://www.blueoceanbarns.com)

Elemental Excelerator looks like it has about 10 ag startups:
[https://elementalexcelerator.com/companies/](https://elementalexcelerator.com/companies/)

------
mrblues
One of my clients which I'm proud of, Phytech, is deploying huge number of
plant sensors to measure their status and help save water by planning how much
to irrigate.

They are doing very well and have huge customers in the US and Australia.

[https://youtu.be/MuWRDZEJ934](https://youtu.be/MuWRDZEJ934)

------
sharkmerry
[https://bearflagrobotics.com/](https://bearflagrobotics.com/)

------
broccolijosh
[https://boweryfarming.com/](https://boweryfarming.com/)

------
macobo
In europe, [https://eagronom.com/](https://eagronom.com/) is taking an
interesting approach - rather than throw all existing farming practices out
with the bathwater, try to build on top of them and modernize to achieve
sustainable farming.

------
jamil7
[https://plantix.net/en/](https://plantix.net/en/) plantix app, a Berlin based
startup is used primarily by farmers in India. It uses computer vision to
identify crop nutrient deficiencies and diseases.

------
alikim
[https://www.indigoag.com](https://www.indigoag.com)

------
aussiegreenie
Here is my ad: Corang.info is the world first fully sustainable property
development. It combines renewable energy with food production and housing.
The project has 'negative emissions'.

If it works we plan to make lots of similar projects in Australia and Asia.

------
Amygaz
If you search for agtech you can find things like this:
[https://agfundernews.com/2019-06-04-agtech-
landscape-2019-16...](https://agfundernews.com/2019-06-04-agtech-
landscape-2019-1600-startups.html)

------
ricksunny
I run www.sunnyirrigation.com in Nairobi. We originate solar irrigation loans
to smallhold farmers, so it is a combination of agtech and fintech. Growth
areas in credit-model building, IoT data processing, in short - we heart
engineers :)

------
tin7in
Infarm [https://infarm.com/](https://infarm.com/) offer indoor farming to
restaurants and supermarkets. They are opening a lot of new locations in
Europe right now (mainly in Germany).

------
tstegart
My friend just started working at Agricycle global.
[https://www.agricycleglobal.com/](https://www.agricycleglobal.com/)

One of their products is a charcoal for your grill made out of coconut shells.

------
johannesboyne
Atfarm - [https://at.farm](https://at.farm) \- uses satellite data to provide
precision fertilization maps for farmers across the globe. (Disclaimer:
involvement in the setup)

------
StephenSmith
TerrAvion (W14): [https://www.terravion.com](https://www.terravion.com)

We're what happened when drone companies realized you couldn't fly the entire
corn belt with a drone.

------
meekstro
Halter.co.nz has built smart collars for grazing animals that record their
data and also automatically move them. Really ambitious project that will
change grass based (healthy meat) farming if they nail it.

~~~
Animats
Others have sold "smart collars" for years.

Compared to a Lely robotic milking system [2], which uses "smart collars" to
identify the cows, that's primitive.

[1] [https://modernfarmer.com/2016/01/wearable-devices-
livestock/](https://modernfarmer.com/2016/01/wearable-devices-livestock/)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ozhU7h8vbE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ozhU7h8vbE)

~~~
meekstro
From the basis of reducing capital outlay, increasing pasture utilisation,
improving omega3:omega6 fatty acid ratios in steroid and antibiotic free meat,
and maximising productive use of marginal land - "primitive" is exactly the
correct term for what Halter is aiming to achieve.

Importing corn, to feed a cow in a shed, then milk it three times a day, using
a robot that breaks down regularly, and coupling it with a collar, that
doesn't detect estrous more effectively than a primitive farmer who just
observes his cows and isn't an expert in the maintenance of 10 robots - is the
current state of modern agricultural technology.

Unfortunately the Lely salesman, the bank manager, and the farmer are unaware
that maintaining multiple complex robots on farms is not profitable and that
one state of the art robot to 50 cows or so is a waste of capital that only
exists due to farmer subsidies and the tediousness of milk-harvesting.

Halter has the lead in this space currently because

Their collars remotely move the animals - this is a good thing when those
animals evolved to graze pasture. The collar does anything the other collars
do to a higher standard plus a lot of other things which are important to
farming grass profitably.

Also while those Lely robots are uneconomic presently - at some point in the
next 5 years - a single robot that sits in the cups on side of a rotary
cowshed and milks 350 cows per hour will come on the market.

So the halter collar will move the cows to the pasture and back to the cowshed
and one cost effective robot will milk them. Producing healthy food at a lower
cost which is good for everybody except for subsidised corn farmers who are I
feel are slowly poisoning the world.

They have some fairly decent backing, I think they secured 8m in their last
round. The founder of Rocket Lab sits on their board. They are certainly doing
interesting work in the agricultural space, and there is nothing wrong with
primitive. We evolved for 600 million years or so and using technology that
respects rather than exploits evolution is generally healthy.

The dairy-farmer in video [2] gets a subsidy from the government as does the
corn farmer who supplies corn for his cows. The thing is the dairy-farmer
would make more money - and everyone would be healthier if there was no
subsidised corn in the system. Also one of the reasons that New Zealand
farmers are innovative and produce healthier food from pasture that is cost
competitive globally including delivery is, that they don't get any subsidies.
None. Nothing. They eat what they kill from a natural economic and
environmental system.

The good ol boys and the Europeans run farms in protected markets that are
only economically viable with their taxpayers topping them up. Doesn't read
like a fertile space for innovation.

------
Yenrabbit
I've been impressed by some of the computer vision work Aerobotics are doing.
EG counting and sizing citrus from drones, pest detection etc. Super solid
data science team, from the chats I've had.

------
anfractuosity
I thought this product sounds interesting:

[https://www.sprowtlabs.com/](https://www.sprowtlabs.com/)

To achieve malting (the germination and kilning of barley etc) on a small
scale.

------
bepitulaz
[https://tanibox.com](https://tanibox.com) we are doing farm management and
monitoring platform. We released an open-source software too called Tania.

------
AOsborn
[https://www.mytrev.com/](https://www.mytrev.com/)

Trev is a farm reporting tool to provide insight into farm operations and
performance.

Startup based in New Zealand.

------
dschnurr
One that I heard about last year and have been following –
[https://www.smallrobotcompany.com/](https://www.smallrobotcompany.com/)

------
haditab
These guys are making an apple picking robot that's pretty bad ass:
[https://www.abundantrobotics.com](https://www.abundantrobotics.com)

~~~
anfractuosity
Nice, that's cool, is that using a vacuum pump for the picking part?

~~~
haditab
Yup.

------
ruffrey
You could look at sustainability accelerators. For example, my company
participated in the Techstars - Nature Conservancy accelerator. Almost 900
sustainability startups applied.

------
ralmeida
Strider (strider.ag), where I work at, is a segment leader in Latin America,
and FarmShots (YC alumn) (farmshots.com) and Cropio (about.cropio.com) are
some other examples.

------
tndl
[https://heavywateraero.com/](https://heavywateraero.com/) Heavy water aero is
trying to do some pretty cool stuff.

------
lxchase
Plenty - Indoor vertical farming that's already in the California market.
[http://www.plenty.ag](http://www.plenty.ag)

------
malchow
WaterBit — [https://Waterbit.com](https://Waterbit.com) — real hardware
deployed on real farms.

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stiggydev
[https://www.agerpoint.com](https://www.agerpoint.com) high-resolution crop
data through LiDAR

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DarmokJalad1701
[https://www.smart-ag.com/](https://www.smart-ag.com/) \- Autonomous tractors

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seattle_spring
* The Climate Corporation

* Granular

* Farmer's Business Network

* Inari

* Pattern Ag

* Solum

* Arable Labs

~~~
shinryuu
Worth noting that The Climate Corporation is owned by Monsanto which in turned
is owned by Bayes.

~~~
viggity
and Granular is owned by Corteva (previously DuPont Pioneer) which is was just
spun out from the Dow-DuPont merger

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62197217
[https://gro-intelligence.com/](https://gro-intelligence.com/)

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zcrackerz
Farmers Business Network - [https://www.fbn.com](https://www.fbn.com)

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dazhbog
[https://pycno.co](https://pycno.co) \- soil sensors and IoT stuff

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athrawa
[https://resson.com/](https://resson.com/)

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enjoiful
Us at InnoVint have made an app for wine production, as well as vineyard
analytic tools.

We’re hiring too!

www.innovint.us

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coob
[https://wefarm.co](https://wefarm.co)

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Havoc
Picking squishy fruits without bruising them is apparently quite difficult

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defterGoose
www.localrootsfarms.com

Shipping container-based vertical farms, primarily for leafy greens

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louisabt
Check out agfundernews.com

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sidcool
Check out growers.

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cogniz55
following...very, very exciting.

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savrajsingh
arable.com

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botwriter
I'm sure this will just get lost in, but hey I'll say it anyway.

I've worked in aquaculture science for years before I moved onto programming
(Pays better / I don't have to worry about farm alarms going off at 2 am).
I've worked in nearly every type of far. I've been at some of the most cutting
edge Recirculatory aquaculture systems in the UK, and I've taught degree and
master students in the field.

Its a dishearting situation right now. Company after company in this field
seems to be going bust because they keep having their technology stolen by the
Chinese state.

Other than Salmon farming the UK aquaculture industry is fucked. Even if you
automated everything, it's still cheaper to produce aquaculture products in
third world countries and ship it in. The recirculatory aquaculture field as
it stands is dependant on EU grants. (Which have stopped because of Brexit)
And also renewable energy grants. A few years back, the government would pay
you money to heat water with a biomass boiler. So it was and maybe still is to
run a RAS system without fish in it.

I'm currently working on some R&D with Giant freshwater prawns (Macrobrachium
rosenbergii,) to hopefully farm blue claws so that they form in higher
densities. But this is only a side project and until major legislative change
happens warm water aquaculture in the UK is fucked.

