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 James

James is a third-generation farmer, tech entrepreneur and is the CEO and Co-Founder of AirAgri. He brings a lifetime on the land and two decades in enterprise tech together to solve agriculture’s most heartbreaking problem: people not coming home. At AirAgri he leads a team that turns IoT, AI and satellite connectivity into an always-on safety net for remote workers—bringing real-time weather, location and health data to the people who need it most.