New weather extremes forcing the South Australian agricultural technology resurgence with a dryland focus
The South Australian-developed and -made Seed Terminator pulverised weed seeds as grain crops are harvested.
Extreme weather in the 21st Century has forced South Australian farmers to rediscover the 19th Century flair for innovation with plans to became a leader in AgTech with a focus on dryland agriculture. Adelaide University in 2019 launched ThincLab Waite, a business incubator aimed specifically at startups in the AgTech food and wine sectors.
Among the AgTech movers in South Australia were:
• Seed Terminator entered full production of its machines that pulverise weed seeds as grain crops are harvested. The Adelaide-based company is making the units that can be retrofitted to a variety of harvesters. More than 120 trials have been made in Australia, North America and Europe.
• Myriota, a satellite communications business, is becoming a global leader in nanosatellite Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity and is based at Lot Fourteen innovation precinct in Adelaide city centre. Its projects in 2019 included a partnership with Queensland AgTech business Goanna Ag to unlock the power of remote monitoring. It also worked with Davey Water Products to add its IoT connectivity to Davey’s TankSense product range, enabling farmers to receive water level data direct to their mobile phones.
• ByGen, an Adelaide startup, developed a low-cost technique for making activated carbon from agricultural waste ahead of a capital raising round to fund commercial production. Founders Lewis Dunnigan and Ben Morton established a pilot plant in 2018, and have experimented with widely available agricultural wastes including almond shell, sawdust, grape marc and rice husks to produce high quality activated carbon.
• Taglog is expanding its digital labour management system designed to improve harvest efficiency for the Australian wine industry into other agriculture sectors. TheRFID (radio frequency identification) system can be accessed through a mobile app and uses cloud-based technology to track the productivity of pickers in the field to ensure they are paid correctly while holding them accountable for the work quality.
