Thursday 8 September: Investing in Innovation
08:30 – 9:00 Registration
09:00 – 9:30 Embracing technology to respond to market demand: Current state and future challenges for the global fertilizer industry
Chris Lawson, Head of Fertilizers, CRU
9:30 – 10:30 Funding and Investment in Agritech: How to present your case
Venture Landscape for Ag Input Innovators
- Where has venture capital gone through the past five years of funding early stage ag input startups
- Startups to watch and trends to monitor in the next 24 months
- How USDA and other federal agencies are supporting early stage entrepreneurs
Matt Foley, Program Director, Invest Nebraska
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DBL’s approach to ag investments
- Trends we’re watching and where we see opportunities for investment, innovation, and partnerships in ag
- Federal support for ag innovation
- Making the case: what we look for in innovation and investments
Paula Uniacke, Director of Impact, DBL Partners
- An Ag-Tech market map. And the events causing the sway and trends
- What we look for in a company. How to think about disruption
- A matrix for evaluating early-stage companies: for investors and those pitching them
Saurabh Suri, Managing Partner, CerraCap Ventures
10:30 – 11:00 Networking and Meeting Break
11:00 – 12:30 Experience exchange panel: Discussing requirements, challenges and success stories of innovation, tech-partnerships, and capital investment
Moderator: Chris Lawson, Head of Fertilizers, CRU
- How incumbents within the industry are positioning to address the risks and opportunities of disruption
- A realistic view on the timelines and levers for systemic innovation
Geographic disparities within the sphere of agricultural innovation
30 year view, not just the 5 year view
Samuel Taylor, Executive Director, Rabobank
- Why partnerships are important
- Considerations for healthy partnerships
- Benefits to strategics and entrepreneurs in successful partnerships
Kim Nicholson, VP AgTech and Innovation, Strategy and Growth, Mosaic
Yara’s Agronomic API’s grows knowledge: The newly innovated suite of Agronomic APIs ensures 117 years of world leading crop nutrition knowledge is more broadly available beyond Yara’s own proprietary digital platforms, significantly increasing accessibility by farmers worldwide.
Courtney Yuskis, Incubation Lead, North America, Yara International
Additional panellists:
Zach Hedge, Director, Innovation & Analytics, OCP North America
C. Ryan Bond, Sr. Director, Global Business Development & Innovation, Nutrien
Hadar Sutovsky, Vice President External Innovation, ICL Group
13:00 – 14:30 Networking lunch
14:30 – 15:30 R&D initiatives to help improve crops' early growth, nutrient delivery and value over volume (3 x 15 min presentations + 5 for Questions)
- The role of plant physiology and soil chemistry in improving nutrient use efficiency
- Fertilizer innovations in stabilized fertilizers and naturally derived alternatives
- Novel biofertilizer and its adoption in ag practices
Kuide Qin, Chief Science Officer, Verdesian Life Sciences
Supplying early-season nutrition
- Germinating seeds rely solely on the nutrients contained within the seed
- Nutritional seed coatings provide a supplement helping to maximize early season growth and yield potential
- A product line offered by Koch Agronomic Services, is a seed delivered nutrition specifically designed to address the early season nutritional demands of crops
Greg Schwab, Vice President - Agronomy and Innovation, Koch Ag & Energy Solutions
The STEPS Center, a New Interdisciplinary Academic Research Center Dedicated to Advancing Phosphorus Sustainability
- The importance of use-inspired basic research in developing new agricultural technologies
- The role of the STEPS Center, a recently funded Science and Technology Center (STC) awarded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, in sustainable phosphate use
- Initial R&D projects on fertilizers, crops, and engagement with stakeholders
Jacob L. Jones, Director, Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability (STEPS) Center
15:30 – 16:15 Coffee Break
16:15 – 17:15
Why sustainable agritech investment is important to reduce environmental footprint, increase nutrient efficiency and ensure food security
- Realising the importance of improving the functioning and long-term resilience of global markets for food and agriculture, including fertilizers
- Environmental sustainability – including the need to promote sustainable agriculture and food systems
- Aiming to resolve issues related to prices for food and production inputs, including fertilizers, along with trade restrictions, and increasing energy and transportation costs
- Improving the policy environment for sustainable investment and trade to achieve progress on global public policy goals, from food security and nutrition to environmental sustainability
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Edwini Kessie, Director of the Agriculture and Commodities Division, World Trade Organization
4R Nutrient Stewardship encompasses a large spectrum of practices and products that are determined by the specific needs of a farming operation. Innovation across the agricultural spectrum including; agritech, product innovation, environmental research, and practice implementation has and continues to proactively impact nutrient stewardship. The continued investment and focus on sound nutrient stewardship has been key to advancing the impact of 4R strategies across the country.
Peyton Harper, Director – Retail and Field Sustainability, The Fertiliser Institute
17:15 Plant based nutrition
- Bridging the fertilizer application knowledge gap
- Optimizing NUE
- Optimizing fertilizer application while minimizing cost and environmental impacts
Oz Ben-David, VP, Growth & Business Development, Phytech
17:30 Networking and Drinks Reception
19:30 Close of Day One