The 3rd BioAg World Congress will be held in Valencia, Spain in 2022 from April 26 thru 29. While the entire agriculture industry comes out of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are optimistic and excited to take advantage of new and exciting opportunities. In this same spirit, our team and mentors believe that Valencia makes an ideal location to exemplify this.
 
“After the stupendous success of BAW 2021, we received several city and country nomination to host BAW 2022,” says Roger Tripathi, Chairman, CEO and Founder of BioAg Linkages and BioAg Innovations. “After all the considerations and synergies, the winner was Valencia. GBAL, BAW mentors and entire BioAg industry is super excited to announce that we will celebrate Europe, a BioAg regional hub, Spain a global BioAg Country Hub, and the Valencia region.”
 
BLOCK YOUR CALENDARS TODAY, for this very unique program –  not only by its knowledge sharing and progress landmarks, but also for its unique highlight of Spain and Europe with their BioAg leadership credentials.
 
Opportunities
 
Despite challenges, Europe’s agriculture industry proved to be resilient in the face of a pandemic. An An executive summary from the EU Parliament highlighted some cases worth noting. Production and trade levels have remained stable all throughout 2020, as have food sectors according to the FAO’s Food Price Index. The summary also highlighted how the EU was able to remain highly effective at preserving the Single market’s integrity while providing aid to the agri-food sector and its workforce.
 
This is especially important for the fertilizer industry which, though it was disrupted momentarily, continued to remain strong.
 
“Fertilizers are closely connected to food security,” said Jacob Hansen, Director General, Fertilizers Europe. “Especially during growing season in the spring when fertilizers are primarily applied to the field. Farmers and horticulturists depend on the supply of fertilizers to grow their crops and thereby our food.”
 
Challenges
A unique industry, the BioAg space has some of its own unique challenges. A major one is the reliance on research and development to enhance the productivity of BioAg products. Developing this sector is important as time becomes increasingly important as regions like Europe fight to mitigate the impacts of climate change as quickly as possible.
 
BioAg-products and Climate Smart Agriculture
“As “climate smart” agriculture continues to be a topic of much discussion for both consumers and producers. BioAg-products can be an especially important part of making this vision a reality. According to a European Biostimulants Industry Council blog post, this is because of several reasons. This includes enhancing nutrient use efficiency in plants, making agriculture more resilient to climate shocks, enhancing soil health and enhancing resource efficiency”, commented Pam Marrone Executive Chair and Partner Primary BioAg Innovation and Global BioAg Linkages
 
BioAg products are also important as science becomes more aware of the relevance and awareness of the plant microbiome. For example, 2021 research from South Korea found that algae – a common ingredient in many BioAg Products – has more beneficial effects on plants and soil within the microbiome than originally thought.
 
Similarly, research from China last August reinforced the importance of a healthy plant biome and the plant-microbial interaction.
 
Part of the Green Deal Strategy
Europe is no stranger to finding alternative ways that are not only efficient and resourceful, but also working to reduce overall environmental impact. The ambitious European Green Deal plans to make the continent the first in the world to be climate-neutral by 2050..  The BioAg industry can play a notable role in this, especially with the Farm to Fork Strategy that works to build a more sustainable food system using new opportunities. Biofertilizers, for example, are a very important part of this solution in part due to their smaller carbon footprint made in their development with natural products.
 
European farmers have shown they are committed to making this vision of reality, and with the growth of the BioAg industry, we are able to equip them with the tools they need to do the job.
 
Agriculture Digitalization
Part of making a more sustainable world includes digitalization. Spain has been especially proactive in this regard. It is home to several Spanish innovators and digital agtech startups. Notably, Datagri 2021 will be held in Lleida with the goal of discussing the digital trends happening in agriculture and how they can accelerate the innovative and technological processes moving forward.
 
Spain’s Challenges as Produce Supplier
While the country is foreword thinking, Spain still faces challenges down the road. According to ABC, Spain exports 60% of its fruits and vegetables. One of the issues they face is that their position as export leaders will not be sustainable based on current prices. They require more ways to add value to their produce that will still result in food that is sustainably grown and distributed.
 
These topics and others we hope to discuss as we meet with professionals and companies throughout the BioAg sector in Valencia, April 26 thru 29, 2022.

BioAg World Congress 2021  is around the corner. With 6 sessions, 35+ distinguished speakers, 7 elaborate panels, and numerous innovative exhibitors, it is going to the best ever 3D Virtual event in the BioAg Industry! BAW Congress is an event by the industry for the industry. It aims to bring all the key stakeholders on one platform to discuss scope, opportunities, issues, and concerns in the sector and come up with a blueprint to make the industry grow sustainably.

The BAW 2021 agenda has been prepared in consultation with industry leaders and holistically includes four main BioAg segments – biopesticides, biostimulants, biofertilizers, and bionutritionals. The sessions will take an in-depth look at the global scenario, industry developments, regulatory challenges and scope, role of governments and stakeholders in promoting BioAg. The sessions will also discuss the influence of the food chain in biosolution adoption, soil health and water management, innovative techniques and technology and much more. The session speakers include well known faces from BioAg Industry, successful BioAg farmers, government officials, regulatory specialists and many more.

The overwhelming response of contestants for BioAgro Disruptor Award and BioAgro Achiever Award  has got us going. With all the entries and the quality for both the awards, our judges will have a tough job! Both the awards aim to recognise the efforts put in by individuals/ companies in bringing the BioAg Industry to this level and driving it forward.

The 3D virtual exhibition providing an opportunity to explore the BioAg Industry, its products and technology without physical travelling is a fascinating setup. Participants from different parts of the world will make the experience count.

Some of the exhibitors and event supporters are UPL, Hello Nature, Valagro, Marrone Bio, Probelte, Bioiberica, Bayer, Bioconsortia, Biotrop, AgriLife, GeoLife and the list goes on. For a complete list, visit the website BioAg World.

The BioAg World Congress is not just any conference, it has been specifically designed to meet the requirements and expectations of the BioAg Industry. It also gives PCAs and CCAs an opportunity to earn Continuing Education Units. It offers you a chance to be amongst the best in the industry from farmers to government officials; from agripreneurs to researchers and academicians. The BAW team is ready and waiting to assist you. Rush to register!

An event by the industry for the industry

The stage is all set for the best 3D virtual event experience. BioAg World Congress 2021, the second edition, is unfolding as a terrific event with strong agenda, 35+ distinguished speakers, 7 elaborate panels, and numerous innovative exhibitors. All together it’s going to be an amazing learning experience. It’s a rare opportunity to learn from the leaders and gain a deeper insight into the industry from the visionaries’ experience and expertise.

The BioAg industry is relatively new but is growing tremendously and offers great sustainable solutions for agricultural issues. As the industry keeps on growing, it faces various challenges such as innovative products, quality assurance, supply chain, consumer awareness, and others. BioAg World Congress is an event by the industry for the industry in the truest sense. Not just the speaker and panelists are industry leaders, rather the congress agenda is developed in consultation with various industry doyens considering different issues, strengths, and global scenarios.

The BAW 2021 agenda is comprised of 6 sessions around four main BioAg segments – biopesticides, biostimulants, biofertilizers, and bionutritionals. The sessions will take an in-depth look at industry developments, roles of the food chain on influencing biosolution adoption, soil health and water management, challenges and opportunities on regulation, go-to-market, science-backed innovations, investment in BioAg, and insight into growth areas such as precision AgTech.

Two awards will be given during the event to recognize the efforts and inspire the human resources in the industry:  BioAgro Achiever Award and BioAgro Disruptor Award.  The BioAgro Achiever Award aims to recognize visionary individuals who turned great ideas into valuable biosolutions for sustainable and productive agriculture and have impacted the development of the biostimulant, biocontrol, or biofertilizer industries.  The purpose of the BioAgro Disruptor award is to highlight innovators and their innovations in bio-agriculture to support food security and food safety in a sustainable manner. The award will be presented to the best commercial innovator based on different judging criteria. Interestingly, the three finalists will get an opportunity to present their innovation during the Congress.

Excitingly, the exhibition is going to be in a 3D virtual format, and it has been designed to be the best ever virtual experience. The participation of BioAg companies from across the world will make this event a once in life-time experience to gain knowledge and experience. All from the comfort of your own spot!

BioAg World Congress is a unique platform that provides participants with an opportunity to network virtually but still interact personally. It offers you a chance to be amongst the best in the industry from farmers to government officials and agripreneurs to researchers and academicians. Moreover, with CCA continuing education units this event can boost your career in the BioAg industry. Don’t miss your chance to climb to the top. Rush to register!

Our own Pam Marrone attended the recent California State Board of Food & Agriculture* meeting on December 16th, 2020. Below are highlights from a discussion on Ag innovation.

Walt Duflock (Vice-President of Innovation for Western Growers) and Dennis Donohue (Director of Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology) gave a talk to the California State Board of Food & Agriculture about ag innovation. They recollected a time when the industry was very competitive and growers were not cooperating on the things that held them back like water, food safety, and labor. Things have improved somewhat. Walt and Dennis made a call for enhanced cooperation among CA growers by putting capital together to attract Agtech ventures and to address key issues at hand. California has a broad range of specialty crops with diverse regions. Innovation in the produce sector is primitive compared to row crops. Little has been accomplished on specialty crops and there still exist many big problems to be solved. There are many entrepreneurs that are reaching out to growers with their innovative solutions. Now, the time is critical for attracting venture capital and to scale up the startups. For these reasons, Western Growers is spending more time on the vetting process of Agtech entrepreneurs. This will help entrepreneurs to get field trials for their members and thus help entrepreneurs scaleup their businesses.

Walt and Dennis pointed out that this is the most exciting time in the industry! We have grown weary fighting the same battles: labor, water supply, regulations, and food safety. There is evermore promise of technology and innovation that will solve these challenges to keep the business of farming viable in California.

Automation is critical to reducing dependence on labor, food safety challenges, water supply & quality. California farmers are 20-30% chronically short on the workforce. Members do not say they will cut jobs because of automation, rather they say that jobs will change from hard labor to better jobs operating more sophisticated systems. Walt and Dennis stressed that it’s not labor vs. management! We should focus on utilizing every inch of land for crop production using harvest automaton such as AI, visioning, robots, high tech tractors, etc. Western Growers and Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology are helping startups with more mentoring and support to scale up faster through a vetting process to enable entrepreneurs to better compete with tech in Silicon Valley. They also suggested different ways to help startups attract more venture capital into the system. Having reference architecture and standard interfaces with tractors, large image libraries of fruit and vegetables in the field will help companies get to market faster and reduce the design and development time-period. The Center is working on a roadmap that inventories all harvest startups. Members and startups execute together and publish information from growers trying the technology. An annual report highlighting the impact of harvest innovation on growers’ ROI (e.g., number of hours saved by using harvest automation) will be published.

The next big issue after labor is food safety, and there is a need to better identify the problems and fix them. The goal here is to also map the companies and help them scale faster. Which technologies can be used in the tech stack? Western Growers is leading the way on food safety. For example, more products can be tested for pathogens in hours rather than weeks. There is a need to brainstorm ways to scale these testing technologies to fix food safety problems before they get widespread.

Debbie Reed from the Ecosystems Services Market Consortium also spoke at the State Board meeting. Ecosystems Services Market Consortium is a fairly new impact-driven non-profit startup focused on issues related to the impact of agriculture on climate change. Debbie spoke about scaling up soil health across the country which is an initiative in sync with the organization’s mission to advance ecosystem service markets that incentivize farmers and ranchers to improve soil health systems that benefit society. Debbie mentioned they are collaborating with ESMC members on a series of pilot projects in major agricultural production systems to test and refine their protocols and tools. They have a project in Kansas with wheat growers and are just starting on specialty crops.

Walt or Dennis will represent Western Growers in the BAW Congress 2021 and share the knowledge and insight to address various issues in BioAg industry.

*The California State Board of Food and Agriculture serves the interest of the state’s diverse agricultural community and it is a fifteen-member state board, appointed by the Governor. The Board serves as an advisory board to the governor and secretary, representing a broad range of agricultural commodities, a variety of geographic regions, and both the University of California and California State University academic systems. It addresses key issues that are of importance to California’s farmers and ranchers, community stakeholders, and citizens. The board encourages public participation and input in all matters concerning agriculture and food policy within the state.