As agtech surges, can Canada close the gap?

From mushroom-picking robots in British Columbia to drones buzzing over Saskatchewan wheat fields that hunt for weeds, companies in Canada’s emerging agtech sector are racing to remove the least efficient element of modern-day farming from the equation: humans.

“Agtech has suddenly become an asset class that’s critical in the short term to preserve our ability to feed our own population here in Canada, but, more importantly, we’ve got a growing worldwide population, so we need to increase yields while also reducing our carbon footprint in this space,” says Sean O’Connor, managing director of the venture capital arm of Saskatchewan’s Conexus Credit Union and its Emmertech agtech fund.

Global investment firms have latched onto the sudden interest in agtech. Last year Seoul-based Mirae Asset Global Investments launched the Globe X AgTech Food and Innovation ETF, which trades on Nasdaq. Then, this past April, BlackRock launched the iShares Emergent Food and AgTechETF. Data compiled for The Globe and Mail by Pitchbook show how Canada’s agtech sector has fallen short. Last year, US$6.9-billion in venture capital financing flowed to U.S. agtech companies, while Canadian agtech companies attracted just US$270-million. One Vancouver-based agtech company, Semios, which provides crop analytics and pest management tools to fruit and nut tree growers, accounted for US$79-million of that haul alone.

Mr. Hebert now sits on Emmertech’s advisory board, and he regularly beta tests new technologies from agtech companies around the world, including farm management software, high-efficiency fertilizers, grain bin monitors and algorithm-driven apps that monitor soil moisture to forecast yields. The demands on agtech companies can also be very different from the software and other information technology sectors in which Canada has had more success building big, international players, and where most venture capital is currently directed. According to data from the Canadian Venture Capital Association, agribusinesses raised just $1 of capital for every $52 that flowed to companies in the information and communications technology space last year.

Ultimately, Mr. McCann envisions a spray-as-a-service model involving swarms of Precision drones, replacing the need for farmers to each buy spraying equipment that can easily cost more than $500,000 and requires people to operate it.

Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)

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