Conventional food production now faces numerous challenges from a range of social, demographic, and environmental factors, which put extra demands on the whole agricultural sector. To address the rising needs and bring the food production processes to a new level, investors and entrepreneurs seek innovative approaches. Therefore, the industry is rich in emerging startups that aim to produce food with greater efficiency and sustainability.
The massive array of new technologies aiming to mitigate the arising issues shaped the unique field — agri-food tech. It fuses agriculture and advanced technology, reinventing the methods of cultivating, processing, and consuming food.
This article explores the essence of agri-food tech, its role and benefits for the industry, and the most impactful categories of agri-food startups.
What is agri-food tech?
Climate change, limited natural resources, together with the rising global population, and altering dietary demands trigger new challenges to the agricultural sector. Agri-food tech implies technology-backed methods to solve emerging issues and disrupt the global food and agriculture industry. The importance of technologically advanced food production is continually rising since the above-mentioned concerns keep reinforcing every year.
Agri-food tech is thriving, penetrating numerous areas of the agricultural sector. It encompasses innovations such as precision farming, IoT applications, data analytics, AI, robotics, sustainable practices, and advanced supply chain solutions. By integrating cutting-edge technologies, agri-food tech focuses on optimizing efficiency, improving yields, ensuring sustainability, and meeting the growing global demand for food. As a result, the entire agricultural landscape is becoming increasingly interconnected and data-driven.
Agri-food tech is an innovation, which means it is much more profound than food and agtech individually, affecting the entire food supply chain ecosystem. But let’s keep things clear.
Food tech or food science technology is a specialized sector for the technological advancement of such essential processes as producing, delivering, and enjoying food. Foodtech covers functional foods, medical foods, and nutraceuticals necessary for consumers’ health and well-being.
Agtech or agritech is a set of advanced scientific techniques utilized to refine the quality of products, protect crops from diseases and pests, and boost farming efficiency. Agritech implies using technology innovations like drones, appropriate data analysis & processing apps, field sensors, and more. Moreover, agtech covers classical, marker-assisted, and new breeding technologies. Digitalization has led to an evolution in agriculture operations.