Kia ora from Callaghan Innovation,

Welcome back to Global Signals, your monthly update of groundbreaking developments in the world of Agritech.

In this issue, we look at the new welfare app for fish, check out the robotic weevils keeping farmers out of grain bins, and explore how our sheds could make water out of thin air.

We’ve designed this newsletter to kickstart exciting conversations around the future of agriculture in New Zealand and beyond.

Kia pai te rā,

Melissa (FutureCentre.nz) and Shane (Callaghan Innovation)

PS: Join us on LinkedIn to stay connected.

Go fish

A new fish welfare app is helping farmers improve the quality of life for their fish. FAI farms has developed the world’s first tilapia welfare app that monitors fish health, behaviour and nutrition, as well as environmental conditions using scientifically validated welfare indicators.

Through real-time feedback, the app is designed to be used by farmers at the hatchery, farm, and slaughter stages anywhere in the world.

We have seen legislation deeming cephalopods as sentient, but little has been done up until now in the fish welfare space.

What other species or classes will we see covered next? Insects is my pick.

Shout out to community member Katherine Short for sending this signal in.

David Mattin’s Signal to Action Workshop

Did you miss out on last month’s webinar with global futures expert David Mattin? The session, Signal to Action, explored four key trends reshaping both agritech and the broader business, consumer, and technology landscape. He then showed us a simple, powerful method to put those actionable trends and signals to work in business.

Learn about David’s innovation technique from the webinar recording.

Going against the grain

Grain bins are dirty, dangerous places to work. A new grain bin management robot, Grain Weevil, has been developed in the US to keep farmers out of grain bins altogether.

Grain Weevil is remote controlled, and uses augers and gravity to level grain, break crusts, conduct inspections, and feed grain into extraction augers. At the size of a small suitcase, it’s easily portable and if accidentally buried can dig itself out of up to five feet of grain.

While productivity gain remains a crucial motivator for adopting technology, is the prioritisation of technology that fosters safer work practices must be a close second?

Next-gen nitrogen

There are 91 million acres of corn grown in the United States, the vast majority of which is treated with synthetic nitrogen. In New Zealand, we’re very familiar with excess nitrogen use polluting waterways, and it being responsible for a chunk of farm emissions.

Pivot Bio is offering a new option with their microbe-based nitrogen-fixing product N-OVATAR, which they recently piloted to overwhelming enthusiasm from farmers. 

A significant amount of research is currently going into reducing the use of synthetic fertiliser through multiple pathways, due in part to high farmer demand.

As farmers look to reduce their impact on the environment, what other opportunities could we see come through for agritech companies?

Tell us what you think about this signal on LinkedIn ►

Clean propagation

Former Impossible Burger Chief Financial Officer, David Lee, is now creating AI for agritech with the launch of his new start up, Inevitable Tech.

Their first product is a “clean propagation” system which ensures healthy seeds and robust seedling growth. But the vision of the company is actually data acquisition to feed AI capabilities - they’re already working with partners in controlled environment agriculture, the most data-rich environment in farming.

Can New Zealand even compete? Do we have the capability and drive to play a part in the global AI storm we’re seeing in agritech?

H2gO

Arizona-based company Source Global has launched the world's first renewable drinking system with their hydropanels which attach to roofs and turn water vapour from the air into clean, drinking water.

The solar-powered panels suck up vapour from the air and move it through moisture-absorbing materials.

The water is then condensed and sent into a pressurised tank and released to a designated tap, all without electricity from the grid or additional infrastructure.

Could this be a solution to droughts? Could our sheds make water out of air for stock?

What I am reading

The Work Kit of Design Fiction

Not a book this time, but a deck of cards. The Work Kit of Design Fiction combines Archetype, Object, Attribute, Action cards into unique possible future products, services, user-experience scenarios, or artefacts.

I have been a longtime fan of the Design Fiction crew - they create stories of possible, probable, and or plausible futures.  It is particularly useful for imagining and ideating “material” artefacts from the future.

Thanks for reading this month's Global Signals!

We’d love to hear your feedback so we can continue to share relevant monthly reads with you.

Don’t forget to share with us any signals or interesting innovations you’ve come across so we can spread the word. We enjoy seeing NZ companies be creative, innovative and push the boundaries, it makes for insightful reading.