Page 10 - National Poultry Newspaper

AgriFutures evokeAG 2020 conference wrap-up
A G R I F U T U R E S Australia managing director John Harvey revealed during the successful February event in Melbourne that evokeAG 2021 will head west.
Following on from the success of two sell-out events in Melbourne in 2019 and 2020, Perth was named as the host city for the third edi- tion of Asia-Pacific’s premier agrifood tech
event on February 16 and 17, 2021.
Embracing Aus- tralia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific, evokeAG takes its in- spiration from the di- versity that the region has on offer.
Perth is the perfect city to host evokeAG 2021, supported by the Western Austral- ian Government’s commitment to grow agriculture, fisheries and food industries.
“We designed evokeAG to be bold, brave and to bring to- gether the Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific agrifood tech ecosystem,” Mr Harvey said.
“It is therefore criti- cal that we view what we do through a dif- ferent lens, experi- ence a different loca- tion and embrace a different landscape in order to create a movement that will
drive real change across the entire re- gion.
“I encourage all our delegates – innova- tors, businesses, en- trepreneurs, primary producers, research- ers, universities and corporates to join us in the west for anoth- er great instalment of food, farm, future in February 2021.”
The proximity of Western Australia to Asia and South Amer- ica, a strong global and local demand for their agricultural commodities, and a focus on growth and development, means Western Australia is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the collective desire for Australia to re- main globally rel- evant and continue to challenge the con- ventions of what we grow, how we grow it and what we eat.
The announce- ment was made at the end of day one of evokeAG where more than 1300 of agricul- ture’s best and bright- est filled Melbourne’s
gether to share their ideas and innovations on the future of our agricultural indus- try.”
The day kicked off with a keynote speech from SVG Ventures – THRIVE CEO John Hartnett, the number- one agrifood tech ac- celerator in the world.
Mr Hartnett ex- plored how we use technology to get more out of available resources to feed our growing population and evolving consum- er demands.
The Silicon Valley- based investor said events like evokeAG ensure Austral- ian agtech startups are exposed to more global venture capital investment.
“Australian entre- preneurs are not get- ting their fair share of venture capital in- vestment,” he said.
“Entrepreneurs need access to global ven- ture capital and cor- porate investors in order to scale glob- ally.
“Events like evokeAG act as a catalyst to bring the key players within the ecosystem together and drive the focus on innovation within the sector.”
Sustainability was another strong focus of the program, with founder of The Fu- ture Market and Al- pha Food Labs Mike Lee asking delegates: “What does sustain- ability taste like?”
Bayer’s head of Crop Strategy Frank Terhorst continued the theme, uncover- ing how we can shape the future of agri- culture sustainably and responsibly with technology.
“We are at a tipping point where both con- sumers and our planet demand a fundamen- tal change in the agri- cultural system,” Mr Terhorst said.
“As we address the growing world chal-
lenges, we need to find sustainable ways of food production that preserve both our natural resources and farmers’ economic viability.
“Embracing bio- technology, innova- tive crop protection products and digital innovation can help solve the paradox be- tween production and preservation.
“In doing so, agri- culture becomes an important part of the solution in combat- ting climate change and biodiversity loss, while helping to en- sure food security in a sustainable way.”
More than 200 farmers flocked to the event, with ses- sions on emerging and established tech- nologies to connect producers to remain competitive in the global marketplace, precision livestock and cutting-edge pre- cision farming keep- ing farmers at the forefront of innova- tive thinking.
Co-owner of The Madgett’s Block vineyard in McLaren Vale, Oli Madgett said he was excited to be at evokeAG.
“It’s a great oppor- tunity to meet some of the most inter- esting and dynamic people in agricul- ture, with insightful sessions on the key trends that are going to shape the coming decade of farming,” he said.
“The sessions on soil health (stop treating soil like dirt) and en- vironmental sustain- ability (with Damon Gameau, who created the movie 2040) are top of mind in our case.”
During the day, del- egates had the op- portunity to connect with 38 innovative agrifood tech start- ups including a team addressing the 7 per- cent mortality rate in our beef industry, a
multi-sensor ear tag, an advanced automat- ed pollination system and a new on-farm test for bovine masti- tis, which could save our dairy industry millions of dollars each year through a reduction in antibi- otic treatment.
Founder of FarmBot Monitoring Solutions Andrew Coppin said evokeAG is an im- portant opportunity to connect with the farmers in the room to showcase the tech- nologies that will revolutionise farming systems.
“evokeAG has not only presented us with an exceptional opportunity to con- verse with farmers and showcase how our technology will assist to make them more productive and profitable, but also to engage with relevant investors, industry leaders and other ag- ritech companies who are current or pro- spective collabora- tors,” he said.
“We are all striving to deliver better solu- tions for farmers that will help create more sustainable outcomes we can then take to the world stage.
“Events like evokeAG help bring all the right parties together and provide the focus the sector needs to develop and scale truly game- changing technology.
Elders joined evokeAG 2020 as the Platinum Partner for the second consecu- tive year.
Elders managing di- rector and CEO Mark Allison said the part- nership is an ideal fit to mature the inno- vation ecosystem and take the industry to new heights.
“evokeAG is an op- portunity for the world’s leading minds in food and fibre to explore what’s next in
Page 10 – National Poultry Newspaper, March 2020
Royal Building. Day one
Exhibition
The first day of the program saw more than 50 national and international speak- ers take to the stage and highlight new technologies, food markets, lessons on launching into inter- national markets and investment opportu- nities.
Mr Harvey said evokeAG aims to in- spire and challenge new ways of thinking.
“We are putting the Australian agrifood tech ecosystem on the global stage,” he said.
“In its second year, evokeAG has attract- ed more delegates, more speakers, more farmers, more start- ups and more inves- tors and it’s tremen- dously exciting to see all parts of the ecosystem coming to-
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