Overseas innovators shared their insights into what's happening with agtech on a global scale at a recent event held in Adelaide.
The Adelaide AgriTech Meetup Group partnered with Agribusiness Australia to host the gathering at Lot Fourteen.
Event organiser Michael Macolino said the Meetup group was formed to set up a network for agrifood innovators and help connect them to farmers.
"We also offer farmers the opportunity to share their challenges back to the people who are building the technology and innovation," he said.
The group has been running for seven years and now has close to 2000 people within their community.
"While we have anyone who is outside of South Australia, or Australia, visiting us we always like to provide them with a platform to share their technology and the insights from their own eco-systems back home," Mr Macolino said.
Canadian presenter Steven Siciliano, one of the founders of EMS (Environmental Material Science), showcased the company's CropSense soil sensors.
The sensors capture a range of data including methane and carbon dioxide levels, allowing producers to verify whether they're sequestering carbon, which Mr Siciliano said was particularly important in his home country.
"In Canada, our farmers are under a mandate to reduce input emissions by 30 per cent," he said.
The system also allows producers to link input decisions to real-time yield potential.
"It allows farmers to minimise nitrogen input earlier in the year," he said.
"This year with the drought (in Canada) there will be farmers who won't put nitrogen in because they're just wasting their money."
Colin Lotzof, a third generation Israeli dairy farmer who is also an international ruminant agricultural consultant, gave an insight into the transformation of primary production in his home country.
"Israel is a desert country. But we're the only country in the world that is de-desertising by a few per cent a year," he said.
The irrigated acreage in Israel was an estimated 72,500 acres in 1950 (depending on rainfall) but the irrigated area today is four times greater at 325,000 acres.
This has come about after drastic infrastructure, regulatory and institutional reform allowed Israel to transform from one of the world's most water-stressed countries to a water-secure nation and in the process became a global leader in agricultural water reuse.
Today, nearly 90pc of Israel's treated wastewater is reused for irrigation purposes.
"We've become specialised in saving every last drop of water," he said.
"The secret of our success is that we don't take water for granted."
Mr Lotzof is looking to bring Israeli innovation to Australia through setting up Pezt Technological Solutions in Australia.
The company make FlyBuster bait, which Mr Lotzof is looking to produce in Australia to service the South Pacific, Australian and New Zealand markets.
FlyBuster is a non toxic and 100pc compostable flytrap.
"It's a natural fly control product, using only organic material, with no animal protein," he said.
Paula Thompson
Paula Thompson is ACM's National Machinery and Ag Tech writer. She has been an agricultural journalist for more than 20 years. Prior to her current role, she was a reporter with the Stock Journal, covering livestock markets and the grains industry.
Paula Thompson is ACM's National Machinery and Ag Tech writer. She has been an agricultural journalist for more than 20 years. Prior to her current role, she was a reporter with the Stock Journal, covering livestock markets and the grains industry.
