Precision Sprayer SpotSprayING Added to the DRT List
Austrian ag‑tech firm Farm‑ING’s SpotSprayING precision sprayer has been added to the Dutch DRT list, earning a 95% drift‑reduction rating. The system combines AI‑driven camera imaging with individually controlled nozzles, spraying only where weeds are detected. Its 55 × 55 mm spray footprint and enclosed hood cut input use by up to 90%, while maintaining versatility for herbicide, fungicide, insecticide and fertilizer applications. The DRT certification underscores its potential to lower emissions and boost efficiency in modern farming.
Kingfish Honing in Yellowtail RAS Production as It Works to Establish Product Recognition
The Kingfish Company, based in Zeeland, Netherlands, has expanded its land‑based yellowtail recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) to a peak capacity of 3,500 metric tons. The firm is now concentrating on improving efficiency and consistency, leveraging year‑round production to serve primarily...
Coffee Companies Launch Satellite-Based Program to Track Deforestation
Coffee giants including JDE Peet’s, Tchibo and major traders have launched the Coffee Canopy Partnership, a satellite‑based system that uses Airbus imagery and AI to map coffee farms and detect nearby forest loss. The pilot will focus on East Africa’s coffee‑growing...
A Ripple Effect: New Research Links Calf Fertility Timing to Milk Production, Workload and Farm Costs
New research from New Zealand’s Resilient Dairy Programme links early calf conception to higher early‑lactation milk yields, reduced labor, and lower farm costs. Cows with higher fertility breeding values resume cycling sooner, conceive more reliably, mature earlier, and stay productive longer....
'I Live in Vegas': Canadian Ag Producers Take Gamble with High Fuel, Fertilizer Costs
Canadian grain producers are confronting a sharp surge in diesel and fertilizer prices, which have nearly doubled since the Middle‑East conflict disrupted oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Farmers such as Bruce Bird and Dave Reid pre‑purchased fuel and...
Reman Day Highlights Manifold Value of New Life for Parts
Reman Day, organized by the Remanufacturing Industries Council, spotlighted the growing role of remanufactured parts in farm‑machinery maintenance. CNH reported a 5,200‑tonne reduction in raw‑material consumption in 2024 and set a 90% recyclability target for new products by 2030. John Deere’s...
Avocados From Mexico Signs Key Step Against Deforestation with New “Zero Deforestation Agreement”
The Association of Avocado Producers and Export Packers of Mexico (APEAM) signed a voluntary Zero Deforestation Agreement on April 15, 2026 with Mexico’s environment ministry (SEMARNAT) and the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA). The pact aims to tighten traceability, enforce forestry...
Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Help Automate Produce Packing
Chef Robotics announced that its AI‑driven robots can now automate tray assembly for produce packing, handling both discrete fruits and scoopable vegetables. The system uses computer‑vision‑guided piece‑picking and weight‑based scooping to place items into clamshells, snack boxes, or layered trays...
Homegrown Fertilizer Act Would Boost Domestic Production
Congressman Eric Sorensen introduced the bipartisan Homegrown Fertilizer Act, which would provide USDA‑backed grants and low‑interest loans to expand domestic fertilizer manufacturing and storage. The bill deliberately excludes the four largest consolidated producers, aiming to spur competition among smaller firms....
Soil Capital’s Latest Deal with Nestlé Highlights Regen Ag’s Role in Building a More Resilient Food System
Nestlé has signed a four‑year partnership with Soil Capital to accelerate regenerative agriculture among European farmers. The program builds on a 2023 wheat and corn pilot in France and now covers the UK and Belgium, supporting about 230 farmers across...
Major Livestock and Animal Agriculture Companies Are Making Climate Promises They Aren’t Keeping
A new PLOS Climate study reviewed over 1,200 climate claims from the world’s largest meat and dairy firms and found 98% to be greenwashing. The research highlighted that livestock accounts for at least 16.5% of global greenhouse‑gas emissions, yet most...
98 per Cent of Meat and Dairy Sustainability Pledges Are Greenwashing
Animal agriculture drives about 16.5% of global greenhouse‑gas emissions, prompting the sector’s biggest meat and dairy firms to issue a wave of sustainability pledges. Researchers from the University of Miami examined 33 leading companies' reports from 2021‑2024, cataloguing 1,233 environmental...
India Decides to Import 2.5 Million Tonnes of Urea at $935 & $959/Tonne
India’s import agency Indian Potash (IPL) approved the purchase of 2.5 million tonnes of urea at $935 per tonne for the West Coast and $959 per tonne for the East Coast. The contract was awarded to five firms—Aditya Birla Global Trading,...
As EUDR Looms, Is the World’s Most Controversial Ingredient Ready?
EU’s Deforestation Regulation, now slated for December 2025, requires palm oil supply chains to prove zero deforestation after 2020. While national schemes such as Indonesia’s ISPO, Malaysia’s MSPO and the voluntary RSPO have improved traceability, the sector remains largely unprepared....
Syngenta Deploys Tetra OS to Accelerate Scientific Discovery Through Industrial-Scale Data Automation
Syngenta has selected TetraScience’s Tetra OS to automate data handling across its Crop Protection R&D labs. The Tetra Scientific Data Foundry will centralize raw instrument outputs—such as chromatography and mass‑spectrometry—into a single, AI‑ready repository. Tetra’s “Sciborg” scientist‑engineers will be embedded...
A Model for Regenerative Agriculture Takes Root in Germany: Connecting Farmers to Growing Market Demand
ADM's re:generations™ programme in Germany engaged 15 farmers across roughly 25,000 hectares to test regenerative agriculture practices. By 2025, wheat emissions were 33% lower and rapeseed 39% below German national benchmarks. The hybrid incentive model blends practice‑based and outcome‑based payments,...
The Fault Line in Aquaculture Sustainability: Can Seafood Certification Deliver What It Promises?
Aquaculture certification faces a sharp split between watchdog groups, who argue that labels often conceal industrial practices, and bodies like the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), which view certification as one of the few scalable tools for improving a fragmented global...
Airbus and JDE Peet’s Team up for Worldwide Coffee Plantation Mapping with Satellites
Airbus Defence and Space has been chosen as technical partner for the Coffee Canopy Partnership, a JDE Peet’s‑led effort to create the first open, satellite‑based map of coffee plantations worldwide. Using 50 cm Pléiades and 30 cm Pléiades Neo imagery combined with Airbus AI...
Gramophone Cofounder Navneet Singh Batra Quits, Joins Superplum
Navneet Singh Batra, co‑founder of Info Edge‑backed agritech platform Gramophone, has resigned to become chief business officer of fruit‑supply chain startup Superplum. His move shifts him from the input side of agricultural trade to the output side, closer to consumers....
World Food Systems ‘Pushed to the Brink’ by Extreme Heat, UN Warns
The UN’s joint FAO‑WMO report warns that intensifying heatwaves are pushing global food systems to the brink. In regions such as South Asia, sub‑Saharan Africa and parts of the Americas, farmers could be forced out of the fields for up...
Ajinomoto Creates New Tech to Replace One of Cultivated Meat’s Most Expensive Components
Japanese food conglomerate Ajinomoto has engineered a plant‑derived hinokitiol compound to replace transferrin, the most expensive ingredient in cultivated‑meat culture media. Transferrin accounts for roughly 95% of media costs, so the new iron‑binding molecule could slash production expenses dramatically. Hinokitiol...
Nordian Combines Starlink and GNSS for Global Centimetre-Level Positioning
Nordian unveiled UltraLink, a platform that fuses SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet with u‑blox GNSS technology to deliver real‑time kinematic (RTK) positioning at centimetre accuracy. The single‑device solution provides connectivity, correction data, and cloud‑based fleet management for precision farming, autonomous machines,...
Kooiman Supplies Camera-Guided Hoeing Machine Farming GT
Dutch firm Kooiman Mechanisation has begun supplying the Farming GT, a camera‑guided hoeing machine from German maker Farming Revolution. The system leverages a database of over 100 crops to differentiate crops from weeds, using GNSS RTK and real‑time camera correction...
Amazon in Pact with Bayer’s TGRA for Carbon Credit Offtake From Sustainable Rice Project
Amazon has signed a long‑term off‑take agreement with Bayer‑owned TGRA to purchase over 685,000 metric tons of CO₂‑equivalent carbon credits from a sustainable rice‑farming program in India. The initiative will work with more than 13,000 smallholder farmers across 35,000 hectares,...
AuX Labs Nabs $4M to Commercialise Cheese Made From Animal-Free Milk Protein
Toronto‑based AuX Labs secured $4 million in a round led by NYA Ventures and Nàdarra Ventures to commercialise its precision‑fermented recombinant casein. The funding will accelerate a brewing‑capacity‑leveraged platform that produces animal‑free, melt‑and‑stretch cheese at price points viable for pizzerias and...
Brazil Trials Show Additive’s Methane-Reducing Impact in Beef; Low-Methane Wool Launch
Minerva Foods and Australian feed‑additive maker Rumin8 completed a 120‑day trial on Brazil’s largest cattle breed, Nelore, showing a 50.4% cut in enteric methane and a 5% boost in feed conversion efficiency. The bromoform‑based additive lowered methane intensity from 77.2 g kg⁻¹...
Funding Dip for Alt Protein Fermentation Signals Shift From Promise to Proof
Funding for alternative‑protein fermentation startups dropped from $651 million in 2024 to $357 million in 2025, a 45% decline, according to the Good Food Institute. The contraction follows high‑profile exits such as Meati, Motif Foodworks and Arkeon, which forced investors to reassess...
Fed Govt to Underwrite CSBP, Incitec Fertiliser Imports
The Australian federal government announced a partnership with CSBP and Incitec Pivot to underwrite fertilizer shipments, using Export Finance Australia’s Strategic Reserve powers. The deal follows similar arrangements with fuel firms and aims to lock in cargoes amid global supply...
Incitec Updates Supply Outlook Amid Middle East Fall-Out
Incitec Pivot, now part of ASX‑listed Ridley Corp, is offsetting Middle‑East fertilizer disruptions by sourcing urea from Indonesia and other regions, securing two cargoes in the Strait of Hormuz and arranging up to 250,000 tonnes from PT Pupuk Indonesia for 2024. The company...
Manufacturing Boost as Victorian Gov’t Backs $92M Flour Mill Expansion in Ballarat
The Victorian Government is backing a $92 million (≈$61 million USD) expansion of George Weston Foods' Mauri flour mill in Ballarat, adding a new warehouse, production line and state‑of‑the‑art milling technology. The project, funded through the $150 million (≈$99 million USD) Victorian Investment Fund, will create...
Port of Baltimore Gets New Grain Facility
A four‑acre grain transloading hub with three silos is under construction at the Port of Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal. The facility will let farm trucks unload directly onto a conveyor that fills the silos, after which Ports America Chesapeake will...
Urea Squeeze Shows Signs of Easing as North Stays Dry
Urea supplies to southeastern Australia are easing as new cargoes from Brunei, Indonesia, Nigeria and Oman arrive by mid‑May, pulling prices down from a $1,600‑per‑tonne peak to around $1,400. Early winter‑crop planting is underway on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, with...
Purdue Economist: Geopolitical Tensions Igniting Long-Term Concerns About Fertilizer Prices
Purdue economist Joana Colussi warns that the ongoing conflict in Iran has pushed U.S. fertilizer input costs up more than 30% since late February, creating immediate pressure on the current crop season and a heightened risk of elevated prices through the...
Amazon Signs $30 Million Deal to Buy Carbon Credits From Indian Rice Farmers
Amazon has agreed to purchase carbon credits worth $30 million (about Rs 280 crore) from the Good Rice Alliance, a consortium led by Bayer with partners GenZero and Shell. The credits will be generated by more than 13,000 smallholder rice farmers across 35,000...
Feed Market Analysis: Alltech Releases 2026 Agri-Food Outlook, Highlighting Production Trends
Alltech’s 15th annual Agri‑Food Outlook reports a 2.9% rise in global feed production in 2025, reaching 1.44 billion metric tons. The study, based on data from 38,837 feed mills in 142 countries, confirms that China, the U.S., and Brazil remain the top...
Technology Is the Answer, but What Was the Question?
At the conclusion of the EU‑funded Hungry EcoCities programme, InstaGreen showcased its Re.Source Society project, which reimagines indoor farm climate control through biologically‑inspired, low‑energy solutions. The team unveiled prototypes such as the 3‑D‑printed “Cooling Cactus” evaporative cooler and the “Living...
Hort Americas to Host Vertical Farming Short Course on Key Production Variables
Hort Americas is offering a two‑hour, $50 online short course on April 24, 2025, aimed at vertical‑farm operators seeking to master the variables that drive yield. The Zoom session, led by technical service specialist Karla Garcia, will cover hydroponic system selection, artificial...
South African Inventor Reimagines Urban Farming with Hydroponic System
South African inventor Jude Bezuidenhout, a 20‑year‑old self‑taught engineer, has launched UMBILO, an ultra‑high‑density passive hydroponic system capable of growing up to 100 plants per square metre without electricity or mechanical pumps. The prototype, operating at the Berea Bowling Club,...
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Daybreak April 21: Rollins Hints at Fertilizer Announcement This Week
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that the administration will unveil a new fertilizer initiative this week, using tariff revenues to strengthen domestic supply amid an 80% rise in urea prices. Recent actions have included easing inland shipping rules and loosening...
Danone to Invest in Skyr Production in France
Danone is investing roughly €20 million ($23.5 million) to expand skyr production at two Normandy facilities—Ferrières‑en‑Bray and Le Molay‑Littry. The Ferrières‑en‑Bray plant will add two new lines, boosting its daily output of 3.5 million pots, while Le Molay‑Littry will begin skyr production, including organic SKUs...
Atomgrid Opens New R&D Centre in Bengaluru for Speciality Agrochemicals
Atomgrid has opened a new research and development centre in Bengaluru’s KIADB Industrial Area, targeting specialty agrochemicals. The facility begins with 15 scientists and will grow to 25 within a year, focusing on cost‑efficient, high‑purity active ingredients for both regulated...
IIT (Ropar) Launches India’s First Fully Integrated Agricultural Intelligence System
The Indian Institute of Technology Ropar has unveiled ANNAN.AI, India’s first fully integrated agricultural intelligence ecosystem that combines AI, IoT, climate science and multilingual advisory tools. The platform features Swan micro‑climate weather stations, Krishi AI for crop and pest diagnostics,...
Opinion: Investing in Ag Innovation Is a Strategic Opportunity for the United States
Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have disrupted up to 30% of global fertilizer shipments, creating a two‑million‑ton shortfall that could affect U.S. farm yields and food prices. CGIAR argues that its research—particularly in nitrogen‑fixation, microbial soil health, and digital...
Phormium Develops New Energy Screen with Proprietary Weaving Technique
Belgian greenhouse‑textile maker Phormium is finalising a new energy‑saving screen woven with a proprietary technique, and has already begun production on dedicated looms. The company has filed a patent and is testing the fabric with tomato growers, with results expected...
Ploid AI Wants to Put Bioinformatics Back in Breeders’ Hands
Ploid AI launched an AI‑powered, no‑code bioinformatics platform that lets plant breeders run complex genetic and phenotypic analyses directly, without needing R, Python, or dedicated compute clusters. The tool automates repetitive pipeline steps, generates statistical models from uploaded data, and...
Pluck’d Launches U.S.-grown Tomato Brand Amid Supply Chain Pressures
Pluck'd has launched a new tomato brand grown exclusively in a high‑tech greenhouse in Virginia, now available at select Walmart, Weis Markets and regional retailers. The operation uses advanced sensors, climate control and data‑driven irrigation to produce tomatoes year‑round, reducing...
Japan Will Continue Importing Peruvian Hass Avocado This Season
Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries approved Peruvian Hass avocado imports for the 2026 season after a phytosanitary audit and a on‑site visit by a Japanese official. The approval enables shipments of more than 765,000 metric tons, a 6%...
Agronometrics in Charts: Extreme Weather Sparks Stunning 32 Percent Surge in US Strawberry Prices
U.S. strawberry grower prices surged 32% in January 2026 as extreme weather disrupted supply chains. Production topped 2.6 billion pounds, with California providing roughly 90% of domestic output. Late‑2025 heavy rains and early‑2026 Florida freezes cut shipments, while imports hit a...
Coming Soon: Facilities That Also Happen to Be Farms
Vertical farms are emerging as a new class of commercial tenant, turning warehouses into year‑round food production sites. Area 2 Farms in Arlington, Virginia, has demonstrated profitability by offering a subscription‑based CSA that delivers locally grown greens and root vegetables....
Higher Fertiliser Costs Risk Lower-Protein Wheat
Higher fertilizer prices, spurred by volatile crude oil after the US‑Israel‑Iran conflict, are adding roughly $13 per tonne to UK wheat and $25 per tonne to rapeseed costs. Brent crude is about $20 above pre‑war levels, pushing fertilizer and energy...