Talking AgTech in the Central Valley: 3 things I learned at AgTechX Ed

One of the best parts of working in agriculture is spending time in places you might not otherwise visit. Last week I had the opportunity to visit Reedley, California. Nestled in the San Joaquin Valley, Reedley is home to about 25,000 people and is self-branded as the “World’s Fruit Basket.” While a bold claim, it’s not entirely unfounded: the Central Valley region in which Reedley sits produces 40% of the USA’s fruits and nuts.?

I was fortunate to be speaking at the first of a series of AgTechX Ed events to be hosted by Western Growers at community colleges in the Central Valley, focusing on the tech-enabled agricultural workforce of the future. Here’s what I learned.?

Bridging the tech-to-agriculture divide is not a question of proximity

Reedley is just under 200 miles (about three hours) from Silicon Valley. The proximity between growers, packers, and shippers and the technologists attempting to build solutions has several benefits for the agtech industry, such as the ability to curate an agtech panel with 2 venture capitalists, 4 startups, two growers, and two corporates even at a relatively small event.?

However, it also has downsides: agtech companies must directly compete with leading tech companies such as Google and Facebook for talent, and growers are inundated with pitches from (albeit well-meaning) startups seeking feedback, trials, and sign-ups.?

The conversation at Reedley echoed dozens I’ve had (and written about ) all over the world: we’re still seeing too much “tech-push” into the industry, ag and tech are not speaking the same language, and growers are still frustrated by the lack of viable solutions coming from the startup community.?

To me, this ongoing challenge underpins the importance of “ecosystem” initiatives that seek to bridge the gap between agriculture and technology, building the skills and aligning incentives to create mutually beneficial collaborations for startups and industry. Examples include WGA’s Harvest Automation Initiative , AgLaunch , and events by The Mixing Bowl .

The skills we need tomorrow will be both technical and social

The focus of the Reedley event was on skills: how do we train and empower the future workforce in agriculture and agtech. When asked the number one capability they’re hiring for, all of the agtech companies, from early-stage startups like AgVoice to multi-billion dollar companies like Trimble , said “software.”?

While some are looking for programming skills or specialization in areas such as machine learning, all emphasized the need for more fluency with software. As one agtech said, “no matter what you’re studying, even if you’re getting a philosophy degree, take at least one software class.”

Both agtech companies and growers also discussed how they are having to take on some of the responsibility for training that was previously left to the school system, getting involved earlier to provide both technical and industry training. There’s perhaps an opportunity here for community colleges, in particular, to help bridge this gap.?

But it’s not just tech skills that we’ll need for the future of agriculture. Charlie Andersen, the founder of agtech robotics startup Burro , emphasized the importance of having people who can talk to, and empathize with, their customers. In Burro’s case, this means speaking both English and Spanish.

This point in particular resonated with me. Driving to Reedley from the Bay Area, I happened upon a radio station in Spanish (one of many in the area, it turns out) and decided to tune in. What I heard was worlds apart from the content playing on the English-speaking stations in the area, reminding me how two parallel universes seemingly exist within this valley.?

The first was a conversation with a doctor talking about the importance of getting vaccinated. The second was a program announcing farmwork opportunities for various upcoming harvest locations across California, including the compensation, how many workers are needed, and what number to call to apply.?

The importance of farmworkers, who largely come from immigrant communities, to California’s ag economy cannot be understated. This was emphasized at the AgTechX Ed event, which was opened (after the pledge of allegiance, of course) by a Reedley College board member who is the daughter of two generations of farmworkers. However, very few in the room actually were farmworkers.?

As we talk about upskilling the future ag workforce, we must ensure we’re focused as much on the social skills needed to support, engage, and include the humans within agriculture, as on the STEM skills needed to build?technologies of the future.?

A call to action not often heard in Australia ?

We were fortunate enough to have Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and previous Chief of Staff to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, keynote the event. She did two things that I did not expect but very much appreciated.

First, she spoke candidly about the challenges ahead for agriculture, including climate change (“or a changing climate, whatever you want to call it”). Second, she explicitly called out the opportunity for agtech as a related, but separate, economic opportunity to agricultural production.

At nearly all the agriculture events I’ve attended in Australia, agtech is seen as an enabler for increasing agricultural production. The call to action, therefore, is around more adoption, not around the development and commercialization of solutions. Here though, there was recognition of both the need for, and the opportunity to create, an agtech industry. This includes developing and manufacturing new technologies that can help produce more with less, improve the taste, quality, and health profile of Central Valley produce, and that create jobs in their own right.?

Secretary Ross explained, “we have the intellectual property and intellectual capacity to solve the challenges and problems, and create economic opportunities and good jobs here.”

I was struck by how different this narrative is to the “let's be takers, not makers” one that, unfortunately, we hear all too often in Australia. I also couldn’t help but think that a call to action around the need for both agriculture and agtech just might catalyze the kinds of collaborations we need to build the workforce of the future.