News and Analysis on Global Ag Innovation, Investment and Sustainability
As Europe’s drought intensifies interest in climate-resilient crop varieties, an intellectual property specialist warns plant breeders that scientific innovation alone will not guarantee commercial success
Wild Bioscience has acquired independent breeder F1 Seed in a move it says creates Britain’s first independent precision-breeding wheat business. The acquisition is an attempt to solve one of agricultural biotechnology’s biggest commercial challenges:...
Bayer has secured exclusive access to RAGT’s elite wheat genetics in Europe as it accelerates plans to launch hybrid wheat on both sides of the Atlantic by the early 2030s. The company believes hybrid wheat represents one of agriculture’s largest...
Biotech start-up Resurrect Bio has signed a joint development agreement with vegetable breeding specialist Bejo to tackle one of the crop’s most damaging diseases
With Brussels moving ahead on gene editing, the UK must now decide whether to press its early regulatory advantage – or align with Europe to secure trade and market access
The European Parliament’s adoption of new genomic techniques (NGTs) rules marks a decisive regulatory pivot towards a model long advocated by global crop giants, but NGOs warn the shift amounts to a backdoor deregulation of GMOs, setting up a new phase...
Fresh funding positions Rainbow Crops to accelerate its AI-driven multiplex genome editing platform, building on early progress highlighted by AgNavigator in March and strengthening its ambition to reshape the future of crop breeding
As emissions targets reshape breeding priorities, UK advisers warn that a narrow focus on efficiency risks sidelining animal health and resilience
Oversubscribed round signals growing confidence in gene-edited disease resistance as seed majors seek alternatives to chemical crop protection
Corteva shared the new name for its seed and genetic business spin-off, having already revealed the executive teams for Vylor and New Corteva in April
Scientists in Tunisia have sequenced the complete genomes of two iconic durum wheat varieties, Mahmoudi and Chili, opening up what researchers describe as a “treasure trove” of genetic traits that could help future‑proof global wheat production against...
Oxford spinout Wild Bioscience has raised £45m in new funding and expanded its operations as it accelerates its route to market for its first improved crop varieties, starting with precision‑bred wheat designed to withstand climate volatility
With capital tightening and exits slow to materialise, Leaps by Bayer’s Derek Norman argues that agtech must adopt a tougher, more disciplined mindset – testing to fail early, not to validate success – if it wants to remain investable
As climate stress squeezes farmer margins and fractures the global food system, SOSV’s Po Bronson believes rising pain could finally accelerate agtech adoption. But only if the sector learns to fund innovation beyond venture capital and embraces...
A new collaboration between BetterSeeds and Caszyme aims to bypass one of the most persistent constraints in plant gene editing: tissue culture. By combining ultra‑compact Cas12l nucleases with engineered plant viral vectors, the partners say they can...
Ultra‑low asparagine wheat developed by Rothamsted Research shows how precision gene editing can help food producers meet tightening safety regulations, without sacrificing productivity, marking a significant step forward for safer, more compliant food...
A new partnership between plant biomanufacturing start-up Foray Bioscience and New York-based nut tree breeder Z’s Nutty Ridge aims to overcome one of agriculture’s hardest scaling problems: how to commercialise elite varieties of long‑lived perennial...
Producers at SIVAL 2026 showcased a wave of innovations designed to keep orchards productive and competitive in the face of a future shaped by tougher chemical restrictions, volatile climate patterns and rising pest and disease pressures
Start-up profile
Belgium’s VIB institute, known for generating world‑class plant biotech companies, believes it has found its next success story in Rainbow Crops; a start‑up combining multiplex genome editing, AI and advanced phenotyping to deliver climate‑resilient,...
Crop protection companies like Corteva are blending gene editing and AI technologies to create corn hybrids that can respond to multiple diseases at once
Paris-Berkeley-based start-up unveils BOTANIC, an open‑weight genomic transformer trained on 43 plant species, and says its approach could cut years from the seed development cycle
UK agri‑biotech Tropic has closed an oversubscribed $105m Series C, the biggest raise yet for a gene‑edited tropical crops company, as investors double down on CRISPR‑enabled tools to boost yield, fight disease and strengthen climate resilience across...
UK spinout says its organelle‑engineering platform could unlock traits not possible to achieve with nuclear genome editing, as investors back new crop development programmes across Europe and North America
Israeli biotech and gene-editing company PlantArcBio is partnering with Agroceres Group subsidiary Helix Sementes e Biotecnologia to develop drought-resilient corn for the South American market
Whole‑genome screening, precision trait mapping and hybrid‑breeding advances have enabled Syngenta to deliver Europe’s first commercially scalable hybrid wheat, marking a pivotal moment for a crop long considered too genetically complex for hybridisation
International Seed Federation (ISF) secretary general Michael Keller warns that a fragmented regulatory landscape risks stalling innovation, slowing climate‑resilient crop development and shutting out smaller breeders
University of Oxford spinout expects precision‑bred wheat to reach UK farms within around five years, following the launch of a new consortium with seed giant KWS and Dyson Farming, the UK’s largest commercial farming operation
A breakthrough by scientists at the John Innes Centre and the Earlham Institute has revealed for the first time how “mother plants” pass environmental information directly to their developing seeds – a finding that could transform approaches to crop...
UK ag-biotech Wild Bioscience and US-based The Traits Company announce a strategic collaboration to fast-track differentiated soybean varieties – validating demand for Wild Bio’s AI-powered trait design platform
From drought tolerance to disease resistance, Biographica says its AI can slash crop development timelines by five years. Investors and seed giants are buying in
Investor profile
Investor Naeem Lakhani believes fixing human health starts with fixing soils. His agtech fund, The First Thirty, is raising €100m to back companies connecting soil biology, food quality, and human health – powered by AI and collapsing genomics costs
UV-based seed trait company BioLumic is taking advantage of Brazil’s growing seasons to speed up developing new crop traits and hybrids
Imperial College London spin-out Biocentis is betting on programmable biology and AI to tackle the global threats posed by insects. It believes its genome engineering platform promises a safer, more sustainable alternative to chemical pesticides and...
Ginkgo Bioworks and Bayer have extended their multi-year partnership to develop microbial nitrogen fixation technology that could reduce reliance on synthetic fertilisers
UK start-up says its breakthrough platform could unlock yield gains in major crops by mimicking evolution and enhancing photosynthesis – now the challenge is scaling it for global seed partners
French start-up Genomines has raised an oversubscribed $45 million Series A to scale its groundbreaking approach to metal extraction
NRGene Green is using AI-based crop genomics to discover traits to address a persistent problem for Canadian canola farmers – clubroot disease
Professor Mark Tester has spent the last decade on a quest to engineer crops to grow in the harshest of circumstances. A breakthrough has unlikely roots in decades-old science, he tells Harry Holmes
Cocoa market volatility is making major food producers like Mars rethink their supply chain with the help of agtech
Canadian canola farmers grapple with the threat of two serious diseases — blackleg and clubroot — but now have four more seed options to circumvent these challenges
Spearhead Bio is taking a glue-and-scissor approach to gene-editing with its proprietary TAHITI technology
What explains the troubles facing Dutch plant health start-up Plense Technologies, which is winding down, and French robotics firm Naïo Technologies, which has entered receivership?
A year on from the commercial release of its hybrid true potato seed varieties in Kenya, trials have delivered 3-4x the yield of local varieties. It is now eying other markets, it tells AgTechNavigator. But it’s a slow business to bake
Triple Helix’s latest report advocates for government action to spearhead agtech innovation and investment to tackle a host of agriculture challenges, including citrus greening
Flagship Pioneering – the US company behind RNA-based vaccine maker Moderna and ag trailblazers Indigo and Inari – has unveiled Terrana Biosciences after four years in stealth. Its RNA platform has a host of potential applications in agriculture, Terrana...
Agri-food accelerator Eatable Adventures selected Nunatak, Sciphage, The Food Chainers, Bee Technology and Koji to join its inaugural Raíces programme, which is supporting the growth of Latin American and Spanish start-ups
CropLife International President and CEO Emily Rees wants improved global value-chain cooperation to address geopolitical volatility and ensure future food productivity
Researchers have called for the EU to allow new genomic techniques (NGTs), such as gene editing, in organic farming. They argue this could help achieve the European Green Deal’s target of 25% organic agriculture by 2030, sparking renewed policy debate...
Company looks to neutralize key toxins produced by C. perfringens
‘Beyond disease resistance, the technology also reduces the susceptibility of pigs to secondary bacterial infections’