Tackling climate change is a priority for global and UK agriculture
The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is a worldwide imperative, and while UK agriculture is at the leading edge of many sustainable practices, it has an important role to play in meeting net zero goals.
The National Farmers’ Union has set a target of reaching net zero for agriculture across England and Wales by 2040. Its three pillars to obtaining this goal are: boosting productivity and reducing emissions, farmland carbon storage, and the coupling of bioenergy to carbon capture utilisation and storage.
Some major UK supermarkets have committed to being carbon neutral from their own operations by 2035.
Changes to UK farming must be data driven and economically viable
It is important that agricultural businesses conduct a carbon audit to create a baseline from which they can develop sustainability strategies to demonstrate achievement. Some funding is available to support such audits.
Changes to UK Government payment schemes and subsidies will make sustainable practices increasingly important for farmers. Retailers and other business within the AgriFood supply chain are focusing on improved carbon metrics and will look to farmers to help deliver their net zero ambitions.
Sustainable farming practices also need to be economically viable to allow agricultural businesses to support themselves and allow the production of affordable food. The best approaches and technologies deliver efficiencies for farmers as well as reducing emissions and ensuring greater supply chain resilience.
Innovation is essential and will be most effective when enabled through collaboration
Incremental changes to agricultural processes and practices will not deliver the scale of impact needed to meet net zero goals. The development and use of innovative technology is vital to reaching these targets.
There is a thriving AgriTech ecosystem, supported by the UK Centres of Agricultural Innovation and other organisations such as Barclays Eagle Labs and the School of Sustainable Food and Farming. The involvement of farmers in AgriTech is essential – as innovators, developers and champions, and to ensure that new tech is both practical and commercially viable.
Success will not be possible without collaboration right across the industry. This will involve new ways of working, effective sharing of data and insights, and finding funding and business models that enable the rate and scale of change required.
Funding in AgriTech is increasing and investment criteria are changing
Global venture capital (VC) investment in AgriTech doubled from $2.5bn to $5bn between 2019 and 2020. The subsectors of indoor agriculture, crop protection and inputs management accounted for almost 50% of deals in 2020.
Specialist VC funds with a focus on climate change are looking for investments in AgriTechs that can have a meaningful impact. There is also increased interest from traditional VCs that were previously deterred by the longer timelines and larger deal values often involved in agricultural investments.
Having a foothold in non-domestic markets and demonstrating a route to accelerated growth can be key to securing funding, especially from overseas investors.
Source: Pitchbook/Finistere Ventures 2020
Investment growth across multiple markets and technologies
Microsoft.CSharp.RuntimeBinder.RuntimeBinderException: 'Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JValue' does not contain a definition for 'image' at CallSite.Target(Closure , CallSite , Object ) at System.Dynamic.UpdateDelegates.UpdateAndExecute1[T0,TRet](CallSite site, T0 arg0) at CallSite.Target(Closure , CallSite , Object ) at AspNetCoreGeneratedDocument.Views_Partials_grid_editors_media.ExecuteAsync() in /home/runner/work/Barclays.EagleLabs/Barclays.EagleLabs/src/Application.Web/Views/Partials/grid/editors/media.cshtml:line 78 at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RazorView.RenderPageCoreAsync(IRazorPage page, ViewContext context) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RazorView.RenderPageAsync(IRazorPage page, ViewContext context, Boolean invokeViewStarts) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RazorView.RenderAsync(ViewContext context) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures.HtmlHelper.RenderPartialCoreAsync(String partialViewName, Object model, ViewDataDictionary viewData, TextWriter writer) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures.HtmlHelper.PartialAsync(String partialViewName, Object model, ViewDataDictionary viewData) at AspNetCoreGeneratedDocument.Views_Partials_grid_editors_base.ExecuteAsync() in /home/runner/work/Barclays.EagleLabs/Barclays.EagleLabs/src/Application.Web/Views/Partials/grid/editors/base.cshtml:line 11
Microsoft.CSharp.RuntimeBinder.RuntimeBinderException: 'Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JValue' does not contain a definition for 'image' at CallSite.Target(Closure , CallSite , Object ) at AspNetCoreGeneratedDocument.Views_Partials_grid_editors_media.ExecuteAsync() in /home/runner/work/Barclays.EagleLabs/Barclays.EagleLabs/src/Application.Web/Views/Partials/grid/editors/media.cshtml:line 78 at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RazorView.RenderPageCoreAsync(IRazorPage page, ViewContext context) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RazorView.RenderPageAsync(IRazorPage page, ViewContext context, Boolean invokeViewStarts) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RazorView.RenderAsync(ViewContext context) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures.HtmlHelper.RenderPartialCoreAsync(String partialViewName, Object model, ViewDataDictionary viewData, TextWriter writer) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures.HtmlHelper.PartialAsync(String partialViewName, Object model, ViewDataDictionary viewData) at AspNetCoreGeneratedDocument.Views_Partials_grid_editors_base.ExecuteAsync() in /home/runner/work/Barclays.EagleLabs/Barclays.EagleLabs/src/Application.Web/Views/Partials/grid/editors/base.cshtml:line 11