Posts By: Walt Duflock
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AgTech Ecosystem – Thoughts from Homecoming Week, err, Tulare World Ag Expo!
Well friends, it is Homecoming Week here in Tulare as much of the agriculture and AgTech community gathers for World Ag Expo to show off products, talk shop, catch up with old friends and make some new ones. Here were my thoughts from a WG Innovation Newsletter article written before heading to Tulare. And now that I have been at the show all day on Tuesday and Wednesday, I’ve got a few…
Here comes Tulare – Homecoming Week 2026!
Well friends, it is Homecoming Week – no, not for your favorite high school or college football team (that was in the fall for those who don’t go!), but for the agriculture and agtech community to gather in Tulare for World Ag Expo. It is the first big west coast ag event of the year, and it is fair to call it homecoming week because everyone from the ag industry now and for the past couple…
$3B in Agtech Automation Could Create 6,000–7,000 Jobs Over Five Years
I’ve been looking into what venture capital funding levels will look like in the next five years (2026-2030) and how much of an impact we can expect to get from automation investment on job creation. This has implications as we look for alternative (i.e. non-VC) funding sources because economic development is often a rationale that can help secure many public sources of funding, including…
2025 Automation Spending Analysis
Automation is now a late-stage capital sink that is gaining share of agrifoodtech spending as virtually every other category implodes. Here are some of the key findings as I dug through the 2025 data to see what’s likely coming in 2026 for automation based on AgFunderNews data from the last 10 years. 1) There are some structural insights and some definite phases in the automation segment.…
One Small Trip to Yuma, One Small Step Forward for Specialty Crop Harvest Automation
Rhishi Pethe and Ben Palone went to Yuma two weeks ago and it was the start of a new path for Western Growers on harvest automation. Ben put together a great agenda for Rhishi that included meetings with growers, farm workers and agtech automation experts with the goal of starting to develop a Product Requirements Document for an iceberg lettuce harvest automation solution. Solutions like this…
Damian Mason’s Top 10 Predictions Podcast!
Damian Mason’s Business of Agriculture podcast has 10 great predictions for agriculture in 2026. I highly encourage everyone to check out the full episode on YouTube (link below). Here are some of the best predictions: 1) Michael Di Sabato predicts Tyson will divest its beef business from the rest of its portfolio. Tyson's beef business has gone from a cash cow (sorry) to a $20 billion…
Our Next Move in Automation
Over the past five years, Western Growers has made some big moves in automation. Since launching the Global Harvest Automation Initiative (GHAI) in February 2021 in Tulare, Calif. with the goal of automating 50 percent of specialty crop farm labor in 10 years, Western Growers and our partners have made some meaningful progress on our automation efforts—but there is still lots of work to be…
Have Pity for Regenerative Agriculture for Inadvertently Fighting a Two-Front War
Regenerative agriculture is heralded by many as the savior of global agriculture. If farmers can adopt regenerative practices like cover cropping, no-till, diverse crop rotations and managed rotational grazing, their soil health would improve and farmers could improve their ag operation’s productivity while fighting climate change. Who could say no to that? And yet, with the promised…
Some Big-Picture Thoughts on Specialty Crop Automation Solutions
I wrote this on the eve of the Tulare World Ag Expo in early February and wanted to share some big-picture insights on the state of specialty crop automation solutions, driven by some major developments in recent weeks. 1) John Deere continues pushing out autonomous solutions at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, this time with new kits for the 9RX and scaled down autonomy in…
An Update on the Agtech Landscape
The Western Growers Global Harvest Automation Initiative turns four in February, coinciding with the Tulare World Expo, in fact. A lot has happened since the launch. Some of the automation startups the WG Innovation team works with have successfully raised additional funding, others have entered the U.S. market from abroad, and some have partnered with equipment manufacturers and equipment…
Innovation Funnels: How We Can Manage and Measure Progress From the R&D Front End to the Commercialization and Scale Back End
The Western Growers Innovation team remains focused on our three big initiatives: automation (to help address labor cost and availability challenges), biological solutions (to help address input regulatory and efficacy challenges) and increased availability of AgTech-enabled workers (to help operate all the new automation and biological solutions). As we continue working with education, industry…
AgTech Ecosystem: Everybody Owns Data Silos; Nobody Owns Integration
One topic that has come up a lot recently─including at the recent FIRA USA event─is how the amount of data being collected on grower operations is tremendous and only growing larger. From on-farm equipment including tractors and implements; to tools like weeding, thinning and planting; to scouting tools; to in-field sensors; to aerial collection via drones, planes, and satellites, growers…
Agriculture Should Lean Into the Food is Health Initiative
There is a lot of conversation currently around food is health. It is absolutely true that consumers who have a healthy diet with more specialty crops will improve their overall health. To push this initiative, there is a lot of activity around program funding that incentivizes the purchase and consumption of healthy foods. One recent example of a quality program was the USDA Farmers to…
Guidance for Agtech Startups
The slide below is from one of the decks I reviewed this week. I see this in various forms way too often, and this is a good example. In this case, the startup has done a five-year set of projections starting with actual numbers from 2022 and half of 2023 (remainder projected) and then forecast out 2024, 2025 and 2026. See if you can spot the red flag. It's the S&M line (Sales and…
FIRA USA 2023 is coming!
Last year’s FIRA USA event in Fresno was a great first effort. Next month, we are going to have three different demo areas in the Salinas Sports Complex, and the automation solutions will be available for demos all three days of the show. Take a look at the aerial layout that includes an orchard demonstration area along with a drone pavilion (yellow pentagon in the top left), a vineyard demo…
Listen In: Where the Realities of Produce Farming Meet AgTech Investments
On a recent episode of Business of Agriculture podcast, Damian Mason, Adam Bergman and I discussed Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA). I remain bearish on CEA and Adam remains bullish. As always, a bit of disagreement makes for great podcast fodder. We covered a lot of ground. Here are the highlights: 1) CEA was one of the hyped sectors of AgTech (along with alternative proteins),…
Three Keys to Success in the Biologicals Space
There is a lot of discussion about biological solutions in agtech these days at trade shows and in ag media, and with good reason. The use of chemical inputs to help manage pests and disease is under massive regulatory pressure from both Sacramento and D.C.—in many cases following the playbook western Europe is already using. Restrictions that could result in reduced use or outright bans are…
FIRA USA: If World Ag Expo and World Agri-Tech had a Baby
Back to back weeks in Toulouse, France and Tulare, USA have convinced me that the format we are adopting for FIRA USA in Salinas in September 2023 is the best event format for the most important activity at a specialty crops automation event—starting and advancing conversations between growers and Agtech companies. It may sound obvious, but a lot of events focus on other things for various…
Agtech Forecast: Q1 2023
Labor remains a top challenge for specialty crops, and it’s getting harder to find. U.S. farmworkers decreased by 70 percent in 70 years, regulatory costs increased 795 percent in 12 years, and U.S. H-2A labor increased from 48,000 in 2005 to 300,000 in 2021—which add transportation and housing costs. Innovation remains the best solution to turn manual tasks like planting, weeding, thinning,…
Planning an AgTech Field Demo? #agtechfielddemos
AgTech startups – we encourage you to use the hashtag #agtechfielddemos when you post your field demos online. It allows growers to easily identify all the AgTech field demos in their area on any given week. You can use it globally since users who search can be located anywhere. Please share this post and the hashtag with folks in ag and AgTech so we can get the usage to continue to…