Agtech in Argentina (beta)

Contxto – Argentina is an agricultural powerhouse. To such an extent that its production of grains, wines, and beef figures in the international community’s collective imagining of the country.

Startup missing?

Agtech in Argentina 

But it’s not just romantic visions of the pampa, gauchos, and malbec. Argentina produces massive amounts of other less famous produce, namely soy, wheat, barley, and sunflower seeds.

This is not only thanks to the vast amounts of land in the country, but also thanks to the efficiency and specialization the agricultural economy has undergone. This combined with Argentina’s recently revindicated spot as a regional tech hub means that it is a prime spot for the development of agtech.

There are the main subdivisions within this thriving sector:

Agtech e-commerce

What it says on the box: Efficient buying and selling of produce or agricultural supplies. This is less straightforward as it seems.

If coronavirus has shown us anything it’s how strangely tangled essential supply chains can be. This is more so the case with rural supply chains, often subject to poor connectivity in the physical but also the digital spheres.  

Information is key since market distortions from a lack of information concerning supply and demand can result in people going hungry while food rots on the fields.

Plant and animal data

Harnessing the power of the Internet of Things (IoT) on the range can help loosen tight margins. Haughty urbanites don’t often think of rural areas as tech hubs, but the combined use of pesticide spewing drones (Nectras), satellites (Auravant), weed control robots (Gbot), and intelligent IoT algorithms (TuRodeo)…

This is the third time in a row I feel tempted to make a cattle pun on these Market Maps.

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Agtech finance

Last but not least, money. Agtech is putting the “seed” back into seed capital and other financing methods including crowdfunding platforms (Wuabi) and risk management services (S4).

There’s loads of money to be made in agriculture, and even more through the intelligent solutions offered by agtech. Have you thought about investing in them? Why not?

Chew on that question for a while.

Related articles: Tech and startups from Argentina!

-AG