New technologies in agriculture meet the growing demand for farm automation, digitalization, and sustainability. Emerging agriculture trends mark a shift towards smart farming and efficient utilization of time and resources while reducing crop losses. Smart farming is an upcoming trend that deploys technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), computer vision, and artificial intelligence (AI) for farming. Robots and drones are accelerating farm automation by replacing manual farm operations such as picking fruits, killing weeds, or water spraying.
Further, AgriTech startups develop IoT devices, powered by sensor technology, to collect real-time field data. This allows farmers to make data-driven decisions. Additionally, the widespread adoption of precision agriculture and indoor farming in recent years fuels IoT growth in farming. Taken together, these AgriTech trends generate disruptive and sustainable changes in agricultural practices. The focus is to not only improve the overall quality and quantity of crops and enhance livestock management but also to reach the ultimate goal of a sustainable future.
This article was published in November 2020 and updated in September 2023.
What are the new trends in agriculture?
- Internet of Things
- Robotics
- Aritificial Intelligence
- Agri Drones
- Precision Agriculture
- Agricultural Biotechnology
- Big Data & Analytics
- Controlled Environment Agriculture
- Regenerative Agriculture
- Connectivity Technology
Innovation Map outlines the Top 10 Agriculture Innovations and Trends & 20 Promising Startups
For this in-depth research on the Top AgriTech Trends & Startups, we analyzed a sample of 5290 global startups & scaleups. This data-driven research provides innovation intelligence that helps you improve strategic decision-making by giving you an overview of emerging agriculture technologies in the industry. In the Agriculture Innovation Map, you get a comprehensive overview of the innovation trends & startups that impact your company.
Click to download
These insights are derived by working with our Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 3 790 000+ startups & scaleups globally. As the world’s largest resource for data on emerging companies, the SaaS platform enables you to identify relevant technologies and industry trends quickly & exhaustively.
Tree Map reveals the Impact of the Top 10 Agriculture Trends in 2024
Based on the AgriTech Innovation Map, the Tree Map below illustrates the impact of the Top 10 Agriculture Trends in 2024. Startups and scaleups work on technological solutions to benefit farmers by automating farm operations and improving productivity. The most prevalent trend is the Internet of Things (IoT), which enables farmers to better monitor the needs of individual crops and animals. Automation in irrigation, farm machinery, and harvesting further eases farm operations while minimizing losses.
Additionally, drones save time spent on crop scouting. Advances in AI and machine learning (ML) also boost prediction accuracy and provide insights into weather events, crop classification, and diseases of plants and animals. Precision agriculture is another major trend observed across the industry. Finally, startups develop sustainable agriculture solutions and advance new growing techniques like hydroponics and aquaponics.
Click to download
Global Startup Heat Map covers 5290 AgriTech Startups & Scaleups
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights the global distribution of the 5290 exemplary startups & scaleups that we analyzed for this research. Created through the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, the Heat Map reveals high startup activity in India, followed by the US and Western Europe.
Below, you get to meet 20 out of these 5290 promising startups & scaleups as well as the solutions they develop. These agritech startups are hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised & more. Depending on your specific needs, your top picks might look entirely different.
Click to download
10 Current Trends in Agriculture (2024)
1. Internet of Things
Traditional crop and field monitoring demands significant labor, physical gear, and time, but IoT offers a game-changing alternative. IoT devices, equipped with multiple sensors, gather and transmit real-time data through mobile apps, edge devices, or other means. These sensors handle diverse tasks like tracking soil temperature, humidity, livestock, and plants. IoT also streamlines remote farm monitoring, boosting convenience for farmers.
Moreover, IoT-driven irrigation systems integrate sensors for automated crop watering, including evapotranspiration, soil moisture, and rainfall sensors. Innovative startups are pioneering sensor solutions that merge IoT tech with drones, robots, and computer imaging. This enhances farming precision, agility, and responsiveness while offering timely alerts for areas needing attention.
Agrila develops an IoT-based Sensor Station
Bulgarian startup Agrila creates a modular IoT-based sensor station to facilitate sensing of vital parameters like soil moisture and temperature, wind speed and direction, rain, humidity, solar irradiation, and much more.
The station is solar-powered and provides real-time alerts via mobile or web applications. Moreover, the solution offers detailed charts, reports, and analyses of sensor data, enabling farmers to gather insights in an economic and efficient way.
Farmer’s Hive provides Remote Monitoring Sensors
Farmer’s Hive is a Canadian startup that addresses the need for instant remote monitoring of farm equipment, crops, and microclimates. The startup develops IoT-based sensors for greenhouses, family farms, and fruit growers. Farmer’s Hive also provides cloud services that store the data and detailed metrics measured by these sensors.
Further, the startup facilitates remote monitoring in a wireless ecosystem with the help of connectivity technologies like 4G LTE-M, Wi-Fi, or LoRaWAN networks. This allows farmers to get insights into their farm data and identify problem areas in real-time.
2. Agricultural Robotics
The scarcity of farm labor, especially in large-scale operations, poses a significant challenge for farmers. To address this issue, agricultural startups are developing robots designed to assist with various tasks. They include operations like fruit picking, planting, transplanting, harvesting, seeding, spraying, and weeding. Such agricultural robots are automating repetitive field chores. Farmers are adopting intelligent agricultural machinery, including autonomous and semi-autonomous tractors equipped with auto-steer technology to streamline harvesting and navigation.
Additionally, robots find utility in automated livestock management systems, managing tasks like weighing, incubation, milking, and feeding. By integrating robots into their operations, farmers enhance overall productivity and reduce human errors, ultimately improving their farming efficiency.
Advanced.Farm offers Robotic Harvesting
US-based startup Advanced.Farm is leveraging robotics technology to develop solutions for autonomous harvesting and navigation in fields. They deploy robots equipped with stereo cameras to identify and pick fresh produce based on size and ripeness.
Additionally, the startup creates food-safe grippers for separating the fruit from the plants. It also manufactures autonomous tractors and hybrid-electric drive systems that enable farmers to automate large-scale operations with less time and effort.
Nexus Robotics develops Robotic Weeders
Canadian startup Nexus Robotics makes Le Chevre, a robot that detects and removes weeds from fields. The robot utilizes deep learning algorithms and cameras to differentiate between weeds and crops.
This approach enables the robot to correctly identify and remove the weeds without damaging crops. It also collects data on the growing conditions of the crops and enables farmers to leverage the data to make informed decisions.
3. Artificial Intelligence
Integrating AI into agriculture empowers farmers with real-time insights, promoting proactive decision-making. AI delivers predictive analytics for weather forecasting, crop yield estimation, and pricing trends, equipping farmers with data-driven choices. AI-powered chatbots assist farmers by offering tailored suggestions and recommendations. AI and ML algorithms automate the identification of anomalies and diseases in plants and livestock, enabling swift corrective actions when necessary.
In agricultural biotechnology, ML algorithms aid in gene selection recommendations. AI also opens doors to alternative credit scoring, extending financial access to farmers overlooked by traditional banks. Innovative startups also leverage AI to improve harvest quality. For example, the harvest quality vision (HQV) technology scans and assesses the quality and quantity of fruits and vegetables.
Arva Intelligence provides AI-powered Crop Planning
US-based startup Arwa Intelligence leverages artificial intelligence to provide customized recommendations for crop planning. The startup creates a software interface that aggregates all farm data to perform detailed analyses on genetics, soil fertility, climate, harvest, and yield.
Arva Intelligence also offers intelligent solutions for soil and climate classification, specific to the crops grown in the field. Moreover, it provides harvest analytics by generating farm-level report cards that enable farmers to identify the limiting factors and analyze the performance of field inputs on crops.
Re-Basket develops AI-based Software Solutions for Agriculture
Re-Basket is a Zimbabwe-based agritech company that builds AI-based software products for agricultural use cases. For example, its AI-driven crop recommendation tool ensures optimal crop selection while AI-based disease diagnostics provides crop health analysis using computer vision.
The startup’s other solutions include tools for fertilizer recommendation, intelligent spraying, and more. These solutions allow farmers and agribusinesses to mitigate in-house software development and reduce costs.
4. Agri Drones
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones collect raw data that transforms into invaluable insights for comprehensive farm oversight. Equipped with cameras, drones simplify aerial imaging and surveying vast fields. Farmers use them to optimize the targeted application of fertilizers, water, seeds, and pesticides, thereby advancing precision agriculture. Drones’ airborne capabilities capture a spectrum of images, ranging from standard visible-light photographs to multispectral imagery, supporting crop, soil, and field analysis.
Additionally, drones streamline tasks like livestock tracking, geofencing, and grazing monitoring. While unsuitable for poultry monitoring due to potential bird disturbance, drones prove highly effective in livestock and grazing monitoring, as well as crop cultivation. Startups are also exploring drone technology for measuring chlorophyll levels, assessing weed pressure, and evaluating soil mineral and chemical composition.
Wakan Tech facilitates Aerial Pollination
Wakan Tech is an Omani startup that builds drone solutions for aerial pollination of date palm trees. They monitor crop health as well as features tools for targeted spraying of pesticides and pollen. The drones pollinate the trees using liquid or dry pollen and are faster than conventional methods.
The startup’s drones are equipped with AI and computer vision technology for the detection of pests and diseased date palm trees. This allows faster and more accurate targeting and spraying, especially in the case of large farm operations.
Equinox’s Drones offers Drone Solutions for Farmers
Indian startup Equinox’s Drones leverages drones to offer services like crop surveillance, aerial inspection, data processing, and data analysis. Its aerial mapping solution uses ortho-mosaic maps, 3D point clouds, digital models, contour maps, and more.
The startup processes images and videos from the drones to facilitate aerial inspection of crops and data analysis. It also provides crop yield estimation based on the data acquired from drones.
5. Precision Agriculture
Sustainability in agriculture involves eco-friendly practices that minimize or eliminate harm to the environment. One prime example is precision agriculture, which entails site-specific crop and livestock management. This approach empowers farmers to apply precise amounts of inputs like water, pesticides, and fertilizers, optimizing yield quality and productivity.
Fields exhibit varying soil properties, sunlight exposure, and slopes, making uniform treatment inefficient and wasteful. To address this challenge, numerous AgriTech startups are developing precision agriculture solutions to boost profitability while optimizing input applications.
Data Farming enables Cloud-based Precision Agriculture
Australian startup Data Farming delivers digital solutions for precision agriculture through pay-per-use cloud services. Its cloud-based platform, The Digital Agronomist, supports satellite images, soil mapping, auto-zone, and more to provide farmers with actionable insights.
The platform offers soil mapping with NDVI, high-resolution satellite imagery, and variable rate technology. The variable-rate application ensures that the rate of application of farm inputs is based on the precise location, advancing precision farming.
Agricolus develops Precision Agriculture Tools
Agricolus is an Italian startup that develops tools for precision farming. The startup deploys satellites and drones for calculating parameters relating to vigor, water stress, and the quantity of chlorophyll. It then develops maps to facilitate variable rate application of fertilizers and other inputs.
Further, the startup improves the traceability of the farm operations and performance analysis via its hardware, AgriPlug. Overall, the solutions optimize production with the right treatment and inputs, while lowering the management costs incurred.
6. Agricultural Biotechnology
Crop yields often suffer due to pests and plant diseases. While agrochemicals have been a common remedy, they don’t align with sustainability goals. Instead, biotechnology offers a path to enhancing crop and livestock quality. Scientific methods like plant breeding, hybridization, genetic engineering, and tissue culture enable the identification of desirable traits in plants. Notably, CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology offers precise and speedy trait modification.
Using novel biotech solutions results in transgenic plants that exhibit disease tolerance, drought resistance, pest resilience, and high yield potential. This, in turn, bolsters farm profitability. Emerging companies also leverage agri-biotech techniques to provide eco-friendly solutions such as biopesticides, bioherbicides, biofertilizers, and bioplastics. They address soil toxicity issues while minimizing environmental impact.
AgGene specializes in Plant Breeding
AgGene is a Canadian agri-biotech startup that exploits plant breeding techniques to develop seeds and tissues with increased protein content. The startup specializes in manipulating genes for the accumulation of proteins.
This way, AgGene addresses the surge in demand for plant proteins across the globe. The startup also deploys genetic editing platforms including CRISPR and MAD7 to incorporate desired traits in commercial crops.
XytoVet improves Livestock Productivity
Australian startup XytoVet is working on breeding techniques for sheep, cattle, and aquaculture. Its DNA technology assigns the right parentage to sheep and cattle, which aids farmers in identifying good flocks quickly.
The startup also improves aquaculture by selecting genes with higher growth rates and disease resistance. It provides a range of genetic analyses to assist farmers in livestock management decision-making.
7. Big Data & Analytics
Metrics encompassing crop area, production, land usage, irrigation, agricultural pricing, weather forecasts, and crop health are critical information for upcoming farming seasons. Big data and analytical tools analyze data on weather events, agricultural machinery, water cycles, crop quality, and quantity to extract pertinent information for farm operations.
This data-driven approach empowers growers to uncover hidden patterns and correlations. Companies now offer farm analytics solutions, allowing farmers to leverage field data more effectively. For instance, farm analytics provides insights into soil nutrient levels, acidity, alkalinity, and fertilizer needs, enabling data-driven decision-making.
Fyllo provides Crop Analytics
Fyllo is an Indian startup that leverages cloud services for the analysis of farm data. The startup’s devices are installed across the farm for data sensing and reporting. Fyllo also builds models with real-time farm data to empower farmers with real-time insights.
This ensures an improved understanding of crop needs, irrigation requirements, pests, and diseases. The startup also provides a personalized fertilizer schedule for crops based on the analysis of soil data.
AgriData Innovations (ADI) enables Data-driven Farming
AgriData Innovations is a Dutch company that develops smart camera technologies for greenhouse farmers to better monitor and manage their crops. They measure crop characteristics, scout for pests and diseases, and analyze seed germination, providing farmers with useful data insights.
ADI’s integrated solutions analyze the collected crop data to deliver actionable recommendations to improve growth, production, and harvest forecasting. The startup’s insights generated using data analytics and visualization improve the overall productivity and operations of greenhouses.
8. Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)
Unpredictable and extreme weather patterns frequently disrupt traditional farming approaches. At the same time, cultivating crops in densely populated urban areas, arid deserts, or challenging environments presents formidable obstacles. Controlled environment agriculture emerges as the solution to these challenges. CEA subjects plants to precisely controlled conditions encompassing light, temperature, humidity, and nutrient levels. This approach includes various growing environments such as indoor farming, vertical farming, and greenhouses.
Additionally, advanced techniques like hydroponics and aeroponics, involving soilless plant cultivation in nutrient-rich solutions or mist, are gaining traction. Aquaponics technique, where plants and fish coexist, with fish supplying nutrients to plants, and plants purifying the water for the fish. CEA methods mitigate pest and disease risks, increase yields, and establish sustainable farming practices.
OnePointOne specializes in Vertical Aeroponics
US-based startup OnePointOne builds a vertical plane aeroponics farming space. The startup deploys vertical farming techniques to save space, water, and labor. Further, it leverages hyperspectral high-resolution imagery to analyze plants on the farm. The startup also provides personalized farming and nutrition services to farmers.
Baltic Freya offers Fogponics
Lithuanian startup Baltic Freya identifies existing problems in the field of hydroponics and aeroponics to give rise to a new and improved atmoponics technique. Plants grown through hydroponics are likely to acquire root diseases, while aeroponics often deploy several nozzles. Existing fogponics techniques may overheat the nutrient solution or crack the piezoceramics discs.
So, the startup has come up with Fogponics 2.0, which ensures optimum fog generation to not overheat the solution or crack the discs. This sustains and improves the maintenance and operability of the environment where plants grow.
9. Regenerative Agriculture
Traditional farming practices often result in long-term soil erosion and compaction. Continuous plowing, tilling, and overgrazing leave the soil with insufficient time to regenerate between cropping seasons. In contrast, regenerative agriculture prioritizes minimal soil disruption while emphasizing enhanced soil biodiversity and the rejuvenation of topsoil. This approach encompasses various techniques, including no-till farming, reduced tillage, crop rotation, and more.
For example, the cultivation of cover crops during fallow periods helps restore soil fertility by shielding the soil. Furthermore, regenerative farming fosters carbon sequestration in fields, transforming them into carbon sinks. This contributes to reduced carbon emissions in the atmosphere and a diminished impact on climate change.
BX enables Tech-driven Regenerative Farming
BX is a UK-based startup that develops a technology solution to aid farmers transitioning to regenerative agriculture. The startup’s AI-powered virtual agronomy platform, SAM, combines research and farm data to deliver specific insights. Its other solution, BX Score, quantifies environmental farm performance and provides even field-level data while considering carbon, biodiversity, water, and waste.
BX’s products allow farmers to leverage a centralized means to access and share data. This data improves the transparency of products sourced from farms. As a result, the startup improves trust across the food and drink supply chain while decarbonizing the industry.
RhizeBio enhances Soil Performance and Health
RhizeBio is a US-based startup that improves soil performance and health. The startup combines a metagenomic method, machine learning, and biostatistics to analyze soil microbiomes. This provides insights into the biodiversity of the soil, like the number of species and community evenness, as well as soil functionality such as the ability to resist droughts and disease.
The company further provides this data as reports over the phone. This allows farmers and agri companies to implement new regenerative farming approaches and track improvements in their soil biodiversity and functionalities.
10. Connectivity Technologies
Smart farming relies heavily on connectivity technologies such as 5G, LPWAN, rural broadband, and satellite communication. 5G, in particular, plays a pivotal role in integrating IoT devices, robots, and sensors, facilitating high-speed communication for assets deployed on-site. This empowers farmers to monitor real-time data more accurately and take immediate action when necessary.
High-speed internet via fiber optic cables further enhances the real-time exchange of field data, a critical component for precision and accuracy in farming operations. These connectivity technologies provide the foundation for IoT and other smart technologies to collaboratively create interconnected and intelligent farms.
Ellenex manufactures Connected Sensors for Agriculture
Australian startup Ellenex offers a wide range of agricultural sensor products powered by connectivity technologies such as LoRaWAN, low-power satellite, Sigfox, and low-power WiFi, among others.
These network technologies run on battery-powered devices used for the measurement of pressure, flow, level, water quality, and temperature. This aids on-time monitoring of the farm with farmers easily accessing accurate data.
4CLIMATE makes a Connected Climate Monitor for Closed Environment Agriculture
4CLIMATE is an Indian startup that develops AER 360, a connected climate monitor for indoor farms. It measures and tracks temperature, humidity, vapor pressure deficit, and dew point to provide farmers with real-time data on their growing environments.
The device integrates with other automation systems and features a dashboard that allows farmers to access live and historical farm data. This way, the company allows CEA businesses, growers, and agronomists to ensure optimal conditions to maximize plant growth.
Discover All Trends and Innovations in Agriculture
The agriculture sector is undergoing significant technological advancements, particularly in developed nations while developing countries are gradually catching up. Smart farming enhances profitability for farmers by providing access to site-specific data, weather forecasts, and yield predictions. A synergy of technologies streamlines farm operations, ensuring efficiency and precision.
Modern agriculture even allows farmers to manage their operations remotely through IoT devices, sensors, and automated systems, fostering productivity and convenience. The Agriculture Trends, Technologies & Startups outlined in this report only scratch the surface of trends that we identified during our data-driven innovation & startup scouting process. Identifying new opportunities & emerging technologies to implement into your business goes a long way in gaining a competitive advantage.
