Agriculture’s growing exposure to climate stress is creating fresh urgency for collaboration between major agribusinesses and emerging technology companies, according to Rainbow Crops CEO and co-founder Giacomo Bastianelli.
Speaking to AgNavigator at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London, Bastianelli said no single company can solve the increasingly complex challenges facing global food production.
“The whole food and agriculture ecosystem is under stress,” he said, pointing not only to climate change, but also growing disease pressures and input market volatility.
“There’s no way that one actor can do it all.”
His comments come as Rainbow Crops announced a new partnership with Vylor, the seed and genetics company officially spun off from Corteva.
A flagship example of open innovation?
Bastianelli suggested the deal could become an important test case for how large agribusinesses engage with start-ups.
Rainbow Crops, a spin-out from Belgian life sciences institute VIB, combines gene editing, AI, breeding and phenotyping technologies to develop crops better able to withstand drought and other environmental stresses.
The CEO said he hoped the agreement would encourage more established agricultural companies to pursue similar partnerships.
“I really hope that this will open up a wave of open innovation and open partnerships between start-ups and the big players,” he said.
Cutting breeding timelines by up to 50%
A key attraction for Corteva was Rainbow Crops’ ability to combine gene editing with conventional breeding in a single technology platform.
According to Bastianelli, the approach allows researchers to generate targeted genetic variation, evaluate plants in the field and continuously feed performance data back into AI models.
The result, he claimed, could reduce crop development timelines by between 30% and 50% compared with traditional breeding programmes, depending on the crop and trait involved.
The company has already demonstrated the approach in corn and is conducting field trials in Belgium.
Regulation and funding remain critical
Bastianelli also argued that Europe’s evolving approach to gene-editing regulation is beginning to influence commercial decisions.
“The fact that Europe has given kind of a green light on gene editing is a great sign for this to happen right now,” he said.
Rainbow is preparing for future gene-edited crop trials under the anticipated regulatory framework, which he expects could come into force within the next two years.
However, he warned that financing agricultural innovation remains a challenge. “The financing of agriculture innovation is a bit different than classical venture capital funding,” he said, suggesting the sector may need greater involvement from evergreen and sovereign wealth funds to help scale breakthrough technologies.
World Agri-Tech London Webinar: Event Intel Unwrapped
This interview was conducted at the recent World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London. The full on-camera interview with Giacomo Bastianelli, alongside discussions with other industry experts, will be featured in AgNavigator’s World Agri-Tech Unwrapped webinar on 4 November. The webinar will also be available on demand. Register for free here
