Launching AgTech Month, the Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries, Mark Furner said agricultural technology, or AgTech, would drive the sector to become a $100 billion industry in Australia by 2030.
Mr Furner said AgTech consisted of any innovation used across agribusiness and associated value chains to improve efficiency, profitability and sustainability.
He said it included hardware and software, business models, and new technologies such as robotics, sensors, new packaging, biotechnology, structures and new applications.
Mr Furner said data from the AgTech and Logistics Hub showed that more than 1,300 farms had already made the leap to incorporating the latest technology into their operations.
“These forward-thinking Queensland producers are making their enterprises more efficient, sustainable and profitable,” the Minister said.
He noted that the inaugural Asia-Pacific AgriFoodTech Investment Report 2022 showed investors had put more than half a billion dollars into Australian start-ups in the previous year.
“We need to harness this interest and be at the front of the technology wave if our producers are going to remain competitive in the national and global markets and meet the ever-growing demand for our products,” Mr Furner said.
“That’s why AgTech Month is such an important time to recognise and learn from the home-grown ingenuity of our producers and the success they are having using new technologies.”
