INNOVATION ACCELERATING THE ADVANCEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY FOR THE FRESH PRODUCE INDUSTRY.
Increasingly, growers are turning to technology to address unprecedented environmental pressures, regulatory restrictions and marketplace demands. In this environment, Western Growers has emerged as a catalyst for innovation in the fresh produce industry.
Here are a few of the other key results in 2022: Next Gen Ag Worker launched in January with a $750,000 grant from CDFA, and by the end of the year our consultant was managing the grant, had identified growers’ top skillset challenges and more than 10 curriculum components to help improve them, and rolled out the new curriculum in more than 10 California Community Colleges. The goal is to produce 3,000 agtech-enabled workers over the next four years. The Biological Initiative launched in early 2022 and built to the Q4 announcement of the Salinas Biological Summit on June 20-21, 2023 with our global partners, including Wharf42 from New Zealand. This event will focus entirely on the biological and chemistry segments of agricultural inputs, the regulatory challenges currently in play, and the key innovators that can help address some of the problems and replace some of the chemistry solutions currently in market. Fundraising Campaigns – Western Growers is supporting multiple fundraising campaigns, including: The $65 million awarded F3 grant , which will help provide economic development in Fresno County with agriculture and agtech The $160 million NSF (National Science Foundation) Engines grant , which will help develop the desert, Central Valley and Central Coast regions into economic engines based on agtech and agriculture
The highlight for 2022 was the launch of the robotics conference FIRA USA in October in Fresno. Over 1,000 growers, startups and
researchers gathered for three days to talk about specialty crop automation solutions at an event that exceeded everyone’s expectations. There was a day of R&D conversations, a day of commercialization discussions and a day of field demonstrations. Our partners from GOFAR and UC ANR helped put on a great event, and there will be another FIRA USA event in 2023.
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