The UK’s agri-tech sector risks slowing the adoption of new technologies by demanding “perfect” evidence before innovations reach commercial farms, according to Defra’s chief scientific advisor, Professor Anjali Goswami.
Speaking at the 2026 REAP Conference organised by Agri-TechE, Goswami warned against “paralysis by perfection”, arguing that not every evidence gap is critical and that different parts of the agricultural value chain must develop a shared understanding of what constitutes good enough evidence to support investment and adoption.
The warning comes at a pivotal moment for the UK’s agri-tech industry, a sector marked by strong scientific research and record public funding but still grappling with the challenge of translating innovation into widespread commercial adoption success on farms.
Her comments come as the government’s Farming Roadmap places technology, innovation and data at the centre of future productivity, sustainability and land-use decisions.
“Different parts of the ecosystem will always have different thresholds for what counts as ‘good enough’, but they need a shared understanding of the evidence required to move from a promising idea to practical adoption,” she said.
Climate pressures increase urgency
Opening the conference, Dr Helen Ferrier, chair of Agri-TechE’s stakeholder group, highlighted the challenge of balancing evidence with action.
“Not everything we can measure is important, and not everything that is important can be measured,” she said.
The sentiment was echoed by Goswami, who argued that agriculture cannot afford to delay innovation while waiting for perfect information.
“Not every evidence gap is important,” she said, warning against “paralysis by perfection” while waiting for a complete data set or spending additional years testing technology performance in the field.
The urgency is growing as Defra modelling points to escalating agricultural risks. Goswami highlighted government analysis focused on acute shocks, chronic pressures and structural vulnerabilities affecting the sector.
After two extreme summers in 2025 and 2026, with another El Niño-influenced summer forecast for next year, REAP organisers said there is little time to lose if agriculture is to become more resilient.
Farmers want proof, not promises
While there was broad support for innovation, farmers made clear that adoption depends on practical results rather than technological potential.
Kathryn Wright of Wright Farm Produce said growers need to see technologies operating successfully in commercial settings, while Jack Smith, technical director for Waldersey Farms, noted that solutions must remain usable “at 5pm on a wet Friday in November”.
James Miller, CEO of autonomous weeding robot developer Earth Rover, said farmers are less interested in technological potential than practical business outcomes.
“What do farmers really care about when adopting new technology? Firstly, it is about payback on the investment, not just the promise of payback,” he said.
“The technology also needs to fit how the farm already works, and the data it returns has to be useful.
“Finally, we often get asked: have I just bought a very expensive coffee table if the company that supplies it isn’t going to be there in five years’ time?”
Scaling remains a challenge
The REAP conference also highlighted the commercial hurdles facing agri-tech start-ups.
Organisers revealed that nearly 90 early-stage ventures have appeared in the conference’s Start-Up Showcase over the past 13 years. Of those, 55 remain active or have been acquired, collectively raising more than £340 million in public and private funding.
The figures suggest that more than 40% of companies showcased at REAP are no longer operating independently, underlining the difficulties many agri-tech ventures face in moving from innovation to commercial scale.
This year’s showcase featured seven start-ups: Number8 Bio, which is developing methane-reducing cattle feed products; BugBiome, focused on microbial crop protection; BindBridge, which uses AI to develop novel crop-protection molecules; Agribot, a satellite analytics company; acoustic pest monitoring specialist BugBug; chemical-risk platform Hazard Evaluation; and food-waste reduction company AgroSustain.
Bridging the gap between research and adoption
Several speakers argued that successful innovation requires researchers to work alongside farmers from the outset and design products that fit existing farm workflows rather than expecting growers to adapt to entirely new systems.
Delegates also welcomed the increase in the funding cap for Defra’s ADOPT programme to £200,000 per project, intended to help farmers generate real-world evidence on emerging technologies before making investment decisions.
The question of proportionality featured prominently throughout the event.
Prof Cristobal Uauy, director of the John Innes Centre, asked: “Is the next step proportionate to the effort needed to get there?”
He suggested that agri-tech could learn from the pharmaceutical sector by describing innovations according to development stages such as “pre-clinical” and “clinical”, rather than relying solely on Technology Readiness Levels.
“Good enough” evidence, he argued, is simply the evidence required to enable the next stage of a technology’s development.
David Coop, managing director of Elsoms, urged delegates to “make the evidence you seek proportionate to the decisions you need to make.”
