Leaps By Bayer invests in ag autonomy, a new class of fungicide chemistry, farmers skeptical about AI


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This week: Mancozeb has been the backbone of fungicide resistance management for 60 years, but now it's becoming another crop-protection controversy. Matt Crisp and the team at Ichor Ag explain how a new class of chemistry they've developed could solve both problems at once.

Plus:

Keep on truckin'. Louisa, Jenn, and Elaine

As regulatory pressure increases, Ichor Ag aims to ‘supercharge’ fungicides with a new class of chemistry

Ichor's novel mode of action comes as the fungicide pipeline thins, resistance increases, and regulators are tighten the rules. Jennifer Marston

Leaps By Bayer backs Sabanto to bring ‘practical autonomy to more farms’

Retrofitting existing tractors lowers the cost of adopting autonomy for cash- and labor-strapped farmers, says Sabanto. Jennifer Marston

Rize lands $31m to help rice farmers cut methane emissions, water usage

Rice paddies represent some 10–12% of global methane emissions, largely due to conventional cultivation techniques. Jennifer Marston

Many growers still find ‘no meaningful benefit’ from AI use on the farm: survey

Forty-two percent of farmers cite high input costs the biggest constraint to improving their farm's financial health. Jennifer Marston

AgriFood Signals: Uber’s $14.8bn bid for Delivery Hero, Hippo Harvest banks $30m, agentic AI for ag

Plus: US lawmakers target 'lab-grown' butter. Jennifer Marston


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Indiana's BioHeartland: a New Identity for a Bioscience Powerhouse

As Indiana competes for the next generation of bioscience jobs, companies and innovation, leaders across industry, academia and economic development are coming together around a unified identity for the region’s powerful bioscience ecosystem.

BioHeartland is designed to elevate the state's leadership across human, animal and plant science. Learn more here.

Report card from California: Farmers and investors need more education on ag biologicals

Dr. Pam Marrone highlights "steady progress" for the ag biologicals market despite economic uncertainty. Jennifer Marston

The wizard, the prophet, and the case for regenerative agriculture

Regenerative approaches are not about retreating from technology but using it to amplify living ecosystems. AgFunderNews guest contributor Rob Appleby

Olam Agri on what it takes to build self-reliant food systems across Africa

Food security relies on not just agricultural production but also on logistics, policy, and private-sector investment. John Njiraini

$7 million to grow Canada’s agriculture tech sector - Featuring Chinova Bioworks

FSA and FSS issue fresh guidance on cultivated meat applications and novel food trials - Featuring Hoxton Farms

Sooner or later, a pivot from glyphosate will be needed

No-Till Farmer

The diet that could remake modern agriculture

Cornell Chronicle

Why is private equity interested in food?

Food Navigator

Cow manure could be the next data center fuel

Grist

OroraTech’s hellenic fire system achieves first light over Greece less than a month after launch

Bloomberg

IQM Quantum Computers acquires selected assets of Quantistry

Silicon Republic

2026 Global AgriFoodTech Investment Report

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2025 Global AgriFoodTech Investment Report

10 years in agrifoodtech: an 83-page e-zine

Climate Capital: Financing Adaptation Pathways for Smallholder Farmers

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AgFunderNews

AgFunderNews reports on the evolution of the global food and agriculture system. By going beyond the headlines, we analyze the people, companies and technologies aiming to improve human and planetary health. Publishing daily, our team of award-winning journalists delivers deeper insight on the growing foodtech, agtech and climate tech industries. A multimedia publication, AgFunderNews is a division of AgFunder, one of the world’s most active agrifoodtech venture capital firms.

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Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. This week: Despite steady growth over the last year, there's still a whole lotta work to do educating farmers and investors on biological inputs, according to Dr. Pam Marrone at the recent Salinas Biological Summit in California. Elsewhere, agrifood corporates have no lack of ambition around regenerative agriculture. Now they need the...

Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. This week: Elaine caught up with ZBiotics founder Zack Abbott on the latest in GM probiotics and Jenn spoke to Stenon as the firm secured $20.5m to measure plant-available nitrogen directly in the field. Elsewhere, farmers, startups, and others weighed in on the good, bad, and "hollow" aspects of the newly signed executive order to...

Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. This week: It’s fair to say that cultivated meat is now well past its honeymoon period after a string of high-profile failures. But is there light at the end of the tunnel, or is one of agrifoodtech’s biggest moonshots destined for the dustbin of history before it’s even out of the starting blocks? Elsewhere, Liberation Bioindustries...