Agtech is useless if we cannot engage farmers. That seems pretty obvious – a product without a customer is of little value, and including customer input into the design and development process is best practice in every industry. But the question of how farmers and the agtech community of entrepreneurs, investors, and accelerators can work together to build great products is much harder to answer.
Why is farmer engagement hard?
We’re all busy, but farmers have it especially tough. On top of relentless workloads, farmers are constantly managing uncertainty. From weather to disease to trade policy, they are subject to variables outside their control. So how can we expect them to also spend time helping eager (but often naive) entrepreneurs and innovators?
At the same time, agtech entrepreneurs are often up against the rural-urban divide. Though an entrepreneur might want to get input from a farmer or set up a trial to get feedback and refine the solution, she might not be able to. Especially for agtech entrepreneurs- most of whom are still on the coasts of the US and in cities around the world- who didn’t grow up on farms and lack networks into the ag communities, even calling a farmer for a 30 minute chat can be a challenge.
Is agtech making it worse?
Improving the engagement model between agtech and agriculture is a critical challenge that, if solved, will benefit both communities. The folks on the agtech side of the equation have been trying, and will continue to try, to solve the problem because it is critical to their businesses. It doesn’t take very long for an agtech company to realize that they need to engage with experts and users in the agriculture industry. Whether for feedback, expertise, trials, or as customers, involving farmers is a must.
Unfortunately, in many instances, agtech entrepreneurs have been forcing half-baked products on farmers. Nothing good comes of this; farmers are left frustrated, skeptical of agtech, and feeling they have been burned. Agtech entrepreneurs fail to receive valuable feedback that will help them build better products. And, perhaps most significantly, the common misrepresentation of farmers being resistant to new technologies is perpetuated.
The good news for agtech is that this is indeed a misrepresentation of farmers. Sure, farmers are frequently working with thin margins and trying to manage a huge list of risks, but generally speaking, the progressivism and hunger for solutions in the farming community is understated.
Despite a hunger for solutions, a disconnect remains. Until we find a value proposition for farmers to get involved in agtech, they will (rightly) remain largely skeptical of the new products claiming to revolutionize agriculture, and the entrepreneurs bringing those products to market will continue to lack critical feedback from the users they’re trying to help.
Three ways to involve farmers early and often
Though there’s no magic bullet, we suggest that there are three broad areas that the global agtech community can improve to more effectively bridge the gap between agtech entrepreneurs and farmers. There are already commendable efforts being made in all three of these areas, but there’s significant room for improvement.
Awareness
The first step is improving awareness of, and trust in, the problem-solving potential of agtech products.
Farmers already know that there are a bunch of precision agriculture tools out there. They know that their expensive combines have a bunch of fancy apps, and that there are myriad products claiming to solve all sorts of problems with digital technologies. Unfortunately, experience has shown these apps to be frustrating in several ways, including: the apps don’t all integrate together, they tend to require redundant inputs, they’re constantly being updated, they’re sold before the kinks are ironed out, they lock you into subscription services. The list goes on.
But agtech isn’t just apps. Entrepreneurs are also building physical solutions to save labor, opening up new markets, shortening value chains, increasing margin, and helping with diversification. It’s important to note that entrepreneurs who start companies hoping to make a quick buck are unlikely to pick agriculture as their market. Agtech entrepreneurs are working in agriculture because they believe they can have a positive impact by building a valuable product for their customers. Investors, for all their bad reputation, are the same: we exist to invest in good businesses that create value.
How do we raise awareness?
Examples include educational content, such as events and workshops. Digital formats can also work well, such as the Agrifood Conversations webinar series [Disclosure 1] and the AgTech….So What podcasts [Disclosure 2]. These formats allow farmers to opt in to subjects that they’re interested in, and they can join remotely. In about an hour, anyone around the world can learn about a new development in agtech and get to know the entrepreneur behind it or hear from other users who are getting value.
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