This week, we review what agri-food tech sectors are seeing most companies flaunt their use of AI, in a disruption of food production which could lead to a gentler impact on the planet.

At New Food Finance, our focus is driving a green transition in food production. We follow more than 3,300 companies leading that transition, and have classified these according to more than 1,700 sectors, sub-sectors, markets and technologies that mitigate pollution, greenhouse gases or biodiversity loss.

We study every company, for their market, technology and fund-raisings over time, and summarise their business solutions in a 1-paragraph description.  

The chart above compares the percentage of companies where we have mentioned the word “AI”, in this description, by “green transition” sector.

It isn’t surprising that robotics comes out top – AI is integral to the automation systems that guide robots, which are disrupting orchard harvesting, for example, and mechanical weeding. Start-ups in this space include Bonsai Robotics and Dahlia Robotics.

Second and third in our ranking come the Integrated Pest Management sector, which refers to technologies for monitoring and / or trapping of pests, to minimise use of pesticides, and Precision Ag. In both cases, AI applications include the use of computer vision, for example to identify pests, where examples include CropVue and FarmSense, or to apply variable rates of pesticide or fertiliser.

Fourth is our sustainable varieties sector, where some companies are using AI-based techniques to identify genetic regions associated with traits of interest, from pest resistance to climate resilience, where examples include Avalo and Keygene. And fifth is our carbon and nature sector, where some companies are using machine learning algorithms to combine various data sources, including remote sensing, to monitor environmental impact or performance, from soil carbon sequestration to biodiversity restoration. Examples include Jesac and ReSeed.