Farmers2Founders pilot program
Abstract
Farmers2Founders (F2F) is a national innovation program designed to support innovative Australian primary producers looking to create and scale agtech, foodtech, and food new ventures, as well as become more ready to adopt and meaningfully engage with agtech. F2F will develop producer entrepreneurship and technology capabilities, enabling producer-led businesses to solve critical industry challenges and successfully bring new agtech, foodtech, and food ventures to market.
Wine Australia supported 3 Ideas Program Participants and then added a variation to include supporting a Producer (Bitwise Agronomy) through the Bootcamp program. This Final Report details the outcomes of the pilot year with specific focus on participation by Wine Australia as an Industry Partner. The report includes reflections on lessons learned and recommendations for extending the impact of F2F programs more broadly across the agriculture industry, including the wine industry.
Summary
Farmers2Founders (F2F) is designed to attract and develop proactive, innovative Australian primary producers looking to grow and transform their businesses through cutting edge innovation and adoption of new technologies. By helping producers develop entrepreneurship and technology capabilities, F2F builds industry champions that can solve critical challenges and successfully bring new agtech, foodtech, and food ventures to market.
During the pilot year of this program, F2F engaged directly with over 1 300 Australian primary producers from across industries and from all states and territories. Key activities in the pilot year included: workshops, masterclasses, and online recruitment initiatives; two pre-accelerator “Ideas Programs;” an accelerator “Bootcamp” program; and an Early Adopter Program. The Ideas and Bootcamp programs were designed to help producers create and/or scale new ventures across agtech and value-added products. The Early Adopter Program was designed to support producers to become strategic adopters of agtech- and engage earlier and more confidently with technology vendors.
KPIs for the pilot year included participation, commercialisation, and ecosystem and capability building metrics. All targets were achieved, and qualitative feedback from participating producers in all programs was positive. Benefits cited by producers include helping them to think differently, work “on” (i.e. instead of “in”) the business, build new skills, access new tools and networks, and advance their business ideas. Notably, producers cite benefits to both their new venture, as well as to their farming business as a result of participating in F2F programs.
Learnings from the pilot year program, which will be implemented in subsequent years, include: changes to the recruitment strategy, including reducing the focus on, and changing the purpose of, workshops; design changes to the Ideas, Bootcamp, and EAP programs to maximise each farmer’s experience; and insights about the role producers can play as champions of agrifood innovation.
Wine Australia, as a cornerstone pilot Industry Partner, supported the initial design and development of all programs, as well as directly supported 3 Ideas Program participants and 1 Bootcamp program participant.
F2F strongly believes that the pilot year successfully demonstrated that there is demand from primary producers for a farmer-centric innovation program that helps them engage proactively with agtech, both to create and scale agrifood ventures, as well as become more strategic, confident technology adopters. Further, F2F can point to evidence that emphasises the role of these producers in solving critical industry challenges, both as farmer-entrepreneurs and as innovation champions catalysing and inspiring others. As a cross-sectoral program, F2F has also been a vehicle to encourage increased producer-RDC and cross-RDC collaboration and interaction. Five specific recommendations have been made, which will be implemented in subsequent years of the F2F program to extend outcomes to a significantly wider group of producers and to leverage these outcomes to create industry impact across sectors.