Advancing agritech

“Agritech is synonymous with innovation in agriculture,” says AgriTechNZ CEO Brendan O’Connell. He estimates the agritech industry generates around $2.5 billion in revenue – encompassing both domestic and export revenue – for New Zealand.

“It’s very much in a high-growth state not only in size but also in impact.”

Innovation-related priorities are high on KPMG’s 2025 Agribusiness Agenda, with past agendas recognising the potential of the country’s agritech sector. As a vital component of agritech, engineering cultivates innovations that have the power to revolutionise agriculture. From advances in machinery and farm automation to drones for crop monitoring, water-efficient irrigation systems, and other sustainable farming practices, engineers are helping primary industries to grow and thrive.

Sowing seeds of change

AgResearch has been at the forefront of innovation within the agricultural sector. The research institute (now part of the newly formed Bioeconomy Science Institute) won the 2024 Prime Minister’s Science Prize for the team’s fungal discovery that boosts grass yields and lifts gains in meat and milk production. It has also partnered with overseas companies like Helogen to manufacture advanced biotech materials in space. While science and technology are major aspects of its research, engineering is essential, too.

Mos Sharifi is a Senior Science Engineer with AgResearch’s Research and Development engineering team. He’s immersed in the entire design and build process, from proof of concept to prototyping to technology transfer for commercialisation. His background in electrical engineering and mechatronics engineering underpins his work in digital and precision agriculture systems.

For instance, he was the technical lead for Clarospec™, a technology that helps meat processing plants measure meat quality. Clarospec™ extracts information from the chemical signatures captured via hyperspectral imaging technology, then uses AI and machine learning to analyse the information in real time.

“From that, you’re automating a manual visual inspection process, but you’re also generating a vast amount of data that can be fed through the whole value chain,” Mos says.

“You can feed it back to the farmers and breeders to improve breeding programmes and farming practices, and you can use the same information to grade the quality of meat and target different markets.”

Mos says that if there’s no farming, there’s no food for the future. So, as an engineer in agritech, his goal is to not only craft more efficient solutions that make farmers’ lives easier but also to add “… a level of excitement for new technologies that the new generation of farmers can embrace”.

Like Mos, Emily Walker works behind the scenes through Tupu Strategic, her consulting company focused on strategy development and evidence-based decision-making for primary industry organisations and businesses.

“Where many might jump into the solution, the approach I take is looking at the why first before the how,” she says. “Integrated holistic thinking is critical in agriculture.”

With a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in engineering management, Emily gained experience as a structural engineer and worked in investment management before transitioning to the primary sector. She’s also the co-founder and co-host of Ag in Conversation, a podcast that aims to bring a deeper level of discussion and understanding to the issues and opportunities faced by agriculture and rural communities both across the motu and around the globe.

“Engineers have a lot to offer. You just have to open your eyes, be willing to look beyond traditional engineering, and apply your transferable skills into one of New Zealand’s key industries,” says Emily.

As a woman in agritech, Emily remains optimistic about diversity in the field. “It’s much like the engineering sector, where there has been a big change from being a traditionally male-dominated sector to now being much more diverse.”

Shepherding innovation

Engineers are also at the helm as agritech business founders.

“They’re using their engineering mindset and approach, looking at problems from a pragmatic viewpoint and translating that into product solutions. As well as building a product, they’re building a business around it,” Brendan says.

He cites Gallagher Animal Management and Waikato Milking Systems as examples of established companies that have achieved international success with engineering as their backbone. He also notes startups like Halter and Bovonic as current standouts in the sector.

Founded by biomedical engineer Liam Kampshof, Bovonic’s QuadSense device uses a patented milk sensor and its latest algorithm for accurate, automated and instant detection of cow mastitis in its earliest stages.

Meanwhile, Halter’s solar-powered cow collars pair with an app for virtual fencing and herding and remote health monitoring. Founder Craig Piggott graduated with a mechanical engineering degree and worked at Rocket Lab before launching his own venture. Craig was recently appointed as a member of the Prime Minister’s Science and Technology Advisory Council, demonstrating the value of engineering and agriculture to the government.

Caring for the whenua

While increasing productivity is an inherent objective in agriculture and agritech, it must not come at the expense of the environment. In fact, transitioning to climate-resilient systems is on the top 20 list of priorities in KPMG’s 2025 Agribusiness Agenda.

“Environmental sustainability is at the heart of our food systems and farming practices,” Mos says. He adds that even though agriculture is about efficiency, producing more with less can be realised sustainably by reducing water consumption, decreasing pollutants, and minimising damage to the soil and surrounding environment.

Climate change is another important consideration for agritech. Brendan is seeing more farm tools and processes moving to electric power, as well as engineering solutions targeting lower emissions, such as reducing or removing methane, and accounting for carbon within farms.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure, so the focus becomes what it is you consider precious, and therefore, what it is you need to measure and make sure you are protecting,” he says.

Maintaining environmental sustainability and mitigating climate change are also innately tied to respecting the whenua and ensuring kaitiakitanga.

“A solution that applies in one location is not going to be the cookie-cutter solution you can apply in another location, much like geotechnical engineering where you’ve got to look at the structure of the ground below before you can start designing a solution,” says Emily. “Agriculture in New Zealand is a living, nature-based system, and it’s so entwined with the local climate and the local geology and geography.”

Unearthing opportunities

Engineering innovations in agritech continue to transform the agricultural sector, yet there’s still room for improvement, especially in terms of creating more tailored, cost-effective technologies.

Brendan acknowledges Aotearoa’s excellence in innovation and the country’s good fortune in having “… farmers and growers who are open to technology, respond well to adopting it, and participate in early innovation cycles, but our challenge lies in scaling those solutions internationally”.

Mos echoes the sentiment, noting that solutions should not only be considered a local product for the local market but as something that could have global impact.

Indeed, signing high-quality trade agreements and developing resilient supply chains are the second and third priorities in the Agribusiness Agenda, given that global markets are in flux due to the United States’ tariffs and other disruptions. The report suggests looking to India and Southeast Asian nations like Vietnam as alternative markets.

Another opportunity involves AI. For instance, AgResearch and the University of Canterbury are exploring the potential of chatbots in agricultural systems. Mos and his team are working with a PhD student on developing a conversational agent that interfaces with farmers to help them navigate the immense volumes of farm-related data.

“We need a solution for this massive challenge that the farming sector has with data and digitalisation,” Mos says. “Our farmers are dealing with a variety of digital tools and systems, and these systems are not integrated and interoperable, so it creates a lot of hassle for farmers to deal with.”

Moving forward, engineering will remain crucial in helping the agricultural sector and the agritech industry flourish into the future.

“Engineering plays an important role in changing our food production system, and it needs to be done in a way that is embracing our planetary constraints and trying to create more options within that,” says Brendan. “We need our best and brightest engineers to solve the problems we have in agriculture, which is fundamental for human life.”

Greener greenhouses

Hot Lime Labs is an emerging powerhouse for greenhouse growers. Founded by chemical engineer Dr Vlatko Materic, the agritech startup’s technology offers a renewable source of carbon dioxide while helping increase yields.

The Hot Lime system works in two cycles. The charge cycle draws carbon dioxide from waste wood combustion, then the discharge cycle releases the captured gas into the greenhouse. Patented limestone pellets power the process.

“Our technology is based around a material that can act as a CO2 sponge. These little pellets separate CO2 from combustion gases and make it clean enough so it can be used in a greenhouse,” Vlatko says.

The benefits are twofold: carbon dioxide enrichment augments crop growth, and renewable sourcing promotes sustainability. “By recovering it from biomass, we are providing an environmentally friendly solution with no increase in CO2 emissions,” says Vlatko.

Additionally, Hot Lime Labs eliminates reliance on fossil fuels. According to Vlatko, greenhouse growers tend to use natural gas because it’s the only fuel that provides CO2 at the same time as heating. “Now that they have a solution for CO2, it liberates them to choose more energy-efficient heating systems,” he says. “We have an upside effect on the whole industry – it’s a little hinge that moves the big door.”

Engineering serves as an integral part of Hot Lime Labs’ solution. “Almost everything we do is around engineering, and that involves a combination of different kinds,” says Vlatko. This includes materials and mechanical engineering for the nuts and bolts of its small industrial plant, as well as automation, chemical, combustion and process engineering for the underlying operations.

The company, which was a finalist at this year’s NZ Hi-Tech Awards for Most Innovative Hi-Tech Agritech Solution, is now at the cusp of their Research and Development ending and commercialisation beginning after the plant’s successful trial at Gourmet Mokai’s greenhouse in Taupō. As their technology evolves, the team hopes to expand their range of feedstocks to include waste from the greenhouse itself, coming full circle in their renewable journey.

This article was first published in the September 2025 issue of EG magazine.