Panel | Farmers doing it for themselves

Necessity-driven innovation has been at the heart of agriculture for generations and now farmers are developing their own tech and creating their own platforms for many reasons. Yes, the disconnect between Silicon Valley and day-to-day realities on the ground is real - but does it go deeper? Historically, farmers have always been inventors. From the chaser bin to electric wool presses, jetting races to mobile sheep feeders, so many tools and systems now considered “standard” were dreamt up and built in someone’s farm workshop because nothing off-the-shelf would do the job. This isn’t a new phenomenon - what’s changed is the accessibility of tools like sensors, coding platforms, AI and additive manufacturing, which are now within reach of those same DIY mindsets. Join this panel and meet four ag entrepreneurs who felt inspired, got sick of waiting for someone else to come up with the goods and  just gave it a burl to find solutions for problems that maybe you just had to be there to understand. 

About Christine

Dr Christine Pitt is a globally recognised thought leader, investor and entrepreneur in agrifood tech. Her work focus includes building and transforming global agrifood ecosystems and accelerating the development, commercialisation and adoption of agrifood tech solutions that solve global challenges.  Between 1998-2017 Christine served as CEO of MLA Donor Company (Meat & Livestock Australia subsidiary), an innovation co-investment fund, where she led the capital raising and deployment of a +$75M p.a. agrifood tech investment portfolio.  In 2018 she co-founded a global agrifood tech business (Farmers2Founders and Agirfood Futures) based in Australia & Singapore.  Christine’s passion is empowering farmers and entrepreneurs to work together to make a real and lasting impact on the industry’s future.