Farm 2050
Programme
Farm2050 is a global pilot for on-farm technologies to provide rigorous independently verified evidence for their efficacy. These trials aim to identify, validate and demonstrate at scale promising disruptive technologies in nutrient management and water contamination, using a global approach to leverage year-round seasonality to speed up the process of proving technologies.
These trials are currently focused on pasturebased dairy in collaboration with agritech investors, farmers, researchers and start-up companies. Three New Zealand-based firms are participating in these trials: CropX, Pastoral Robotics, and Eko360.
These trials are an opportunity for New Zealand agritech to participate in international research activities as well as demonstrate our agritech capabilities to a global research, investment and primary industry audience. Their aims are also highly relevant to New Zealand’s environmental goals and provide opportunities to bring potentially world-leading solutions to market sooner for domestic New Zealand users. The ITP’s investment in Farm2050 has allowed us to progress these trials relatively quickly.
Launched as a pilot in 2021 the NZ Trial Programme carried out an international call for applications followed by an expert committee selecting five start-ups (3 NZ and 2 US) to participate. Key criteria included the potential to have meaningful impact on nutrient management challenges and for the trials to add clear value to the company’s development
The Trial Programme is seeking to address key problems in the development of nutrient management technologies:
Address the prohibitive costs for early stage companies to access the high level of scientific resources required to complete robust multi-year trials.
Attract internationally relevant technologies from other crops and farming systems to prioritise and focus on NZ’s pastoral farming opportunity.
Provide independent scientifically validated data that companies can use to help secure investment, partnerships and customers.
The requirement that a full solution to the nutrient management problem will require numerous proven, easy to manage and implement, technologies to operate cohesively together.
Connection to international trial opportunities that NZ companies can access to incorporate counter-seasonal Trialling and international customer acquisition.