AgTech Innovators season 3

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgTech Innovators, keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

The AgTech sector encompasses researchers, startups, and investors, just to name a few. They're all crucial parts of a complex global innovation network. However, for that network to successfully meet the challenges of feeding the world, it needs to be connected.

G'day, I'm Drew Radford and growAG is focused on pulling the threads of that network together. Their role is connecting the agrifood innovation community across Asia Pacific and around the world. Arianna Sippel is senior manager with growAG, and to discuss how they do that, she joins me for this AgTech Innovators podcast. Thanks for your time.

Arianna Sippel:

Thank you very much, Drew.

Drew Radford:

Arianna, you've had quite a long background in terms of AgTech. In fact, you have a global perspective with it because I understand your career, well, didn't quite start with, but you spent some time with Austrade as part of their global AgTech strategy.

Arianna Sippel:

Yes, I was privileged enough to be working with Austrade in the agribusiness and food sector when agritech and that innovation and the opportunities around that really started to emerge here in Australia. And so many really interesting companies coming through and so much research from the different research organisations across Australia, and also real interest in what was coming out of Australia from different markets around the world. And so an opportunity to really help draw those different groups together and help try and set up the Australian ecosystem to be a really thriving successful ecosystem and industry in its own right.

Drew Radford:

You're certainly walking the talk there because your role now is with AgriFutures. For those unfamiliar, what's AgriFutures do?

Arianna Sippel:

So AgriFutures is one of the 15 Research Development Corporations (RDCs) (Research and Development Corporation) (Research and Development Corporation) (Research and Development Corporation) (Research and Development Corporation) that exists in Australia, and so what most of us do is we take levies from producers, so we match that with federal government funding and the RDCs invest that on behalf of those industries to really help those agricultural industries thrive and grow and be successful. Here in Australia, we export around two-thirds of what we produce, so that innovative edge is really important for helping us both be productive, competitive, and sustainable as climates and environments change over time.

Drew Radford:

Well, you've taken, I would argue, the next step in that in terms of being really at the pointy end, because your role is with growAG. How's that different? What's that specific focus there?

Arianna Sippel:

It's part of AgriFuture's focus on global innovation networks and how we can really supercharge those and help ensure that Australia is both a leader in accessing as well as adopting, developing, and exporting agrifood technologies and innovation. You might say, ‘Well, why are we doing this?’ Because we see that that really healthy, thriving ecosystem is really key to having Australian producers be able to have early access to new innovations and the right innovations for them, and having that capacity here in Australia to be able to really deliver those things to producers so that they can be really successful.

Drew Radford:

You said a couple of key words there. You said ecosystem and you also said network, and I go onto your website and those terms draw the threads together for me because I see just all these amazing stories, like the 6 big things that are going to come towards us that are going to change agriculture is one of the stories, and they've got sub stories under there, but I'm looking at it and going, they're great stories, but I'm working out also that you're pulling the threads together there. You're saying there's researchers, there's investors, there's technologies. Is that what's going on? You're trying to collate all of this under one roof?

Arianna Sippel:

Absolutely. We're trying to pull all those threads together so that it's really easy for anyone, whether they're in Victoria or in Australia or around the world, to be able to find and connect with relevant groups here in Australia and relevant opportunities. And so there's around 3,000 research opportunities that you can jump into and see, well, who has that expertise if I wanted to reach out and connect and collaborate? You can see what are some of those opportunities that are coming through, and so if you're a startup, you might see some research projects you can tap into.

You might see some other startups who are doing something interesting that's complimentary to your solution and you can reach out and then go and partner, and at the end of the day, deliver a package solution to producers or other users that will be more attractive and more compelling because it's easier to digest. If you're a researcher, you can find those research collaboration opportunities.

If you're a corporate, or an investor, or a scale-up perhaps, you can see, what are the things that I could be investing in? What are those groups at an early stage and be able to reach out. What are those innovations that, again, I can pull through into my business or I can connect to my investee companies as well. How do we make it easy for people to do that? The last kind of offer, and this is probably the most powerful, I think, is for those groups who are active in the ecosystem, they can also put up their own opportunity. So they can say, ‘This is what I'm seeking, this is who I'm seeking to do that with, and this is what I see them doing with that.’

So it might be, ‘I’m a startup. I'm seeking strategic partners. I'm seeking investors. This is what those groups look like, and here's a little bit about my journey to date, what I'm offering, the traction I've had, and how I'd like to collaborate and work with you.’

Drew Radford:

Okay. Well, using that example then, how does somebody do that? Is that like a message board space that you've got in under those plethora of stories, or is it a breakout area?

Arianna Sippel:

So if people jump on the site, growag.com, it's a really easy to search website. So there's a search bar at the top so you can explore away and see what's on there. You can get a sense of the types of opportunities and the types of calls that people make. Also on the top right-hand side of the platform, there's another tab that says Submit. So if you jump onto Submit, you can then submit your own profile, you can submit an opportunity, and that will come through to us and we'll reach out and have a chat with you about, ‘Can we tweak a little bit?’ If you'd rather have a conversation first, you can always send through a general inquiry,,, and we'll set up a time. We've got a live concierge that sits behind the platform that helps people to really drill down and understand how can they use it, how can they get the most out of it.

Drew Radford:

What do you see as some of the biggest challenges and opportunities startups face in the Victorian AgTech industry and the industry as a whole?

Arianna Sippel:

One of the really obvious ones that is really front and centre for me is, how do you go beyond your immediate networks if you're wanting to do customer discovery and market validation, or if you're wanting to say, identify some of those strategic partners that can help you scale. It might be, how do I take my idea or my tech from ideas accelerator or perhaps from a lab, to being something that I can actually see, this is how I'm going to transform that idea, that piece of tech into something in field or in market. And so finding those partners that can help you sanity check and future-proof and think about, what's the right business model? Is this viable? Who might be my end customer? All those key ideas, you can find those partners through the platform.

You can also raise capital. You can find research collaborators or complementary solutions. You can also say, ‘Hey, I'm wanting to go global. I'm wanting to find potential partners in this particular market or that particular market.’ And through the platform, we have around 16,000 subscribers. We send out opportunity updates every fortnight so people can see what are those new opportunities coming through, and they can jump on and put an enquiry in about those ones that they're really interested in.

So that's certainly one of the big challenges I see, how to go beyond your immediate networks and validate what you're thinking about and find those potential partners. People often say you've got to kiss a few frogs along the way, but beyond your immediate pond, how do you find the lakes and the oceans and how do you navigate some of those things?

One of the other things I think is, if you're a startup, really tying down the detail around your business model can be just as important as your technology. Getting to the bones of who is actually your customer, who is going to be willing to pay for what you're doing, and what's your path to market there is really key.

Obviously, it's also, what is your technology or service or solution, what's your offer around that, and really understanding what's interesting or differentiating about what you are offering. And what's your hook? What's your value proposition to those customers? But certainly I think that business model question is a really important one for groups to nail.

Drew Radford:

You deal with the nation, but from a Victorian perspective, in your experience, what are the most promising areas within the Victorian AgTech sector that you see?

Arianna Sippel:

Look, I will give probably a little bit of an agnostic view here. It's not a particular sector, but what are the solutions that are going to solve big, chunky problems that Victoria, that Australia, that the world are grappling with at the moment? So one of those is a lot around, how do you manage product shelf life? How do you deal with waste and how can you create more value and help everyone on the supply chain realise more value? So whether that solution's looking at, say, extending shelf life or valorising byproduct streams.

So if you are producing almonds or you're producing hazelnuts, what have you, what do you do with the shell? How do you add value there? If you are producing a leafy vegetable, there's a certain piece that goes to market and is sold and there's a whole lot of other green biomass that is essentially waste. So what's the best way of getting some value from that? If you're a rice producer, what do you do with the rice straw? You've harvested the rice, but can you do something else with the rice straw? So the whole lot of different opportunities there that I think are really interesting about how we create more value and more sustainability all the way along the supply chain.

Couple of those other really big, chunky issues that everyone grapples with, workforce. Solutions that help producers focus their workforce on more complex tasks or that reduce work health and safety issues, they're really key and certainly help us make the most of our workforce so that we end up with higher-value products at the end of the day and more sustainable business models as well.

I think the other thing that we need to be thinking about is solutions that help producers manage biosecurity and manage pest and disease and retain market access at the same time. So there's a lot of noise in the media around different chemicals or different families of the chemicals having short market access lives might be the way of putting it, but what's next? What are those alternate biologicals or integrated pest management solutions that people might be able to take on? How do we validate those? How do we trial those, and how do we find things that are fit for us here, whether in Victoria or Australia more broadly?

Drew Radford:

Do you have 3 tips for startups that you'd like to share?

Arianna Sippel:

Yeah, I've already talked about the business model piece. It really is such an important piece around thinking about your business and who is your business targeting, and what does that then mean about how you structure your business, and who do you go and target, and what kind of support might you need to have. So I think that business model piece and understanding who your customer is so important.

The other 2 tips I'd have is when you're thinking about your competitive landscape, don't just think about your direct competitors. Try and think really laterally around, what are the other solutions? What are the other services? What are the other factors that someone thinking about whether they might use my solution or whether my solution is relevant or interesting? What are the other things that are going to be on their plate that they're going to be thinking about, because that is who you're going to compete against. It's a bit like if you're a David Jones or a Myer or whatever. Your competitors are not just each other. They're small specialty shops, they're online sales. It's a much broader piece. Or it's also what a different sentiments around consumer spending and so on.

Third tip would be understand what you can tap into without giving equity away. As a startup, you really need to retain enough skin in the game that you and your team are still motivated to get up and go for it each and every day. It can be a really hard long slog, so take a look at what some of those different government and ecosystem supports are that are available. There's some really great programs, particularly in Victoria. If you take a look at, say, the LaunchVic programs, many of those are in partnership with AgVic, but there's also some industry agnostic ones that you might want to take a look at. Breakthrough Victoria as well have some different models that look to see what's available. Similarly, there's a whole lot of different accelerators, but there's also a whole lot of regional support mechanisms that can really help you to get further and figure out more about what you need to do to structure your business and to advance your technology or solution that can get you further.

If you're still in the research phase, if you have someone in your team who's involved with a research organisation, you can look at things like CSIRO's On Prime Accelerator, for instance, that really helps you develop some of those tools and helps connect you into different networks. So, take a look at all those sorts of things. What can you tap into that's not going to reduce your equity, that can get you a little bit further and extend those relationships and those connections as well.

Drew Radford:

Arianna, what do you see are the challenges and opportunities for investors in the future?

Arianna Sippel:

There's a couple of things for investors in the future, other than try to keep an eye on the local and global pulse in terms of where there's still value as opposed to different segments getting over-hyped in different spots. But I think certainly for investors being able to be connected to their peers, both locally, whether that's in Melbourne, say, or in Victoria or in Australia, or across different markets. So perhaps between Australia and New Zealand, Australia and US, Australia, Singapore, etc. How do we make that easier that people can find those good partners and those partners that they can collaborate with to look at and then help their investees to go further and to really be able to scale? Because I do think particularly for Australian startups, often they will need to look to go global if they're going to really thrive and really be competitive.

So for investors, how do you help your startups do that? How do you also educate the startups and the researchers coming through? And look, this is probably one that's a little bit for those accelerators and different groups out there, but also at the end of the day for investors. How do you help educate the startups and the research groups that are coming through to understand what VC has to offer or your angel group or your corporate VC or your family office or whatever.

Because they all come with different benefits or different attributes and different opportunity costs, so it's really about finding the match for someone who's going to be on the same wavelength and receptive to the opportunities that you can provide. So how do we have that happen more broadly across the ecosystem?

Drew Radford:

I would argue, Arianna, that you and the team at growAg are helping enormously make those matches, those collaborations all happen through the work that you do. Arianna Sippel, Senior manager with growAg, thanks for joining me for this AgTech Innovators podcast.

Arianna Sippel:

Thank you very much, Drew.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to AgTech Innovators. For more episodes in this series, find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. We’d love to hear your feedback, so please leave a comment or rating, and share this series with your friends and family.

All information is accurate at the time of release. Contact Agriculture Victoria or your consultant before making any changes on-farm.

This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria, authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgTech Innovators. Keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

The global agrifood innovation system is complex. It’s comprised of everything from researchers to entrepreneurs, through to investors. Each are cogs in the large AgTech machine. How though do you make sure that that machine is running smoothly?

G’day. I'm Drew Radford, and Beanstalk greases those cogs in its role as food and agriculture innovation advisory and venture builder. To discuss what that means and how it works, Justin Ahmed is Director at Beanstalk, and he joins me for this AgTech Innovators podcast. Justin, thanks for your time.

Justin Ahmed:

Thanks for having me, Drew.

Drew Radford:

Justin, you've got a lot of dust on your boots from agriculture, literally from all around the globe, haven't you?

Justin Ahmed:

Yeah, I do. I'm originally from California, but across my career I've been fortunate enough to live and work in a lot of different contexts. Spent some early part of my career in the agricultural development space, working on USAID [United States Agency for International Development] and Gates Foundation, Syngenta Foundation focused projects in technology transfer for smallholder farmers in South Asia, particularly Bangladesh and East Africa.

I've spent the years following that actually in the management consulting space, helping them to build their agricultural analytics hub. So based out of Boston and New York, serving clients around North America and the globe on digital strategy in the agriculture space. And I've been fortunate enough to move to Melbourne mid-pandemic, the end of 2020 with my family, where we've been ever since.

Drew Radford:

Wow, that’s quite a bit of globe hopping, to say the least, Justin. And what I take away from that too is you've seen the firsthand impact of AgTech on developing countries, but all across the agricultural sector. You really get it, for want of a better description.

Justin Ahmed:

Yeah, I’d like to think so. Maybe from an observer, an external standpoint in a way, not as a producer myself, but I've been fortunate to see the different impact that digital, physical, equipment-based or biological solutions can have in a whole range of different contexts. Whether that’s a quarter-acre farmer in Kenya or a 5,000 hectare operation in the plains of Canada.

Drew Radford:

Justin, Beanstalk, you are working with them now. I've seen a line describing the organisation as, ‘We serve as grease in the wheels of the global agri-innovation ecosystem’. That's a big sentence. What’s it mean?

Justin Ahmed:

We also like to say that we aim to unleash the potential for agriculture to be a leading force for good. We are not technology developers in a way, and nor are we producers. We sit somewhere in the middle.

We are passionate about helping producers, agribusinesses, governments to leverage the power of technology to build a more sustainable and productive food system. That means anything from supporting primary producers and corporate agribusinesses to build out and execute their own innovation strategies, building capability and capacity to understand and conduct diligence on technology that they’re providing in their operations, all the way to supporting governments and the public institutions to define how they can help to support the growth of an agricultural technology ecosystem.

Drew Radford:

That's a very broad working space to say the least, Justin. So maybe you could give some examples. Now, what sort of specific programs or initiatives has Beanstalk implemented to foster the growth of AgTech startups in Victoria and abroad?

Justin Ahmed:

A big focus of mine at Beanstalk is actually developing the agricultural ecosystem in Southeast Asia and the connectivity between Australia and Southeast Asian nations in that way.

One of the programs we’ve been implementing for the last 4 years now has been something called the Graft Challenge Program. This is an open innovation program that we've deployed in Australia, in India, in Vietnam, and Papua New Guinea. We like to call it a land-and-launch program. We work with local agribusinesses to define common challenges that plague their industry, help them understand what kind of technology and support can play a role in shifting the needle on those, and then go and engage recruits and bring on technology providers from around the world, help them to establish commercial relationships and foundations in those markets.

So just to put that in a bit more detail, 2021 with the support of the Australian government and some local agribusinesses, we deployed a program called the Graft Challenge Vietnam. We worked with stakeholders and agribusinesses in the piggery space who were trying to solve for disease control solutions, the horticultural space solving for basically challenges like mango exportability to Europe, and in the shrimp and aquaculture sector who are looking to manage water quality and other challenges.

We brought in 9 different technology providers from 7 different countries, helped them to adapt their technology, hire staff locally, build commercial trial plans, and 6 of those actually ended up launching into the market conducting commercial trials or deploying their services commercially in Vietnam today. So that’s a bit of the wheel greasing that we like to talk about.

Drew Radford:

It certainly sounds like you’ve got a bit going on in Asia, to say the least. What about in Australia?

Justin Ahmed:

So just to give you a little shot of something closer to home, with support of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Future Drought Fund, we’ve just launched a Drought Venture Studio that we are deploying nationwide in partnership with the 8 drought and innovation hubs across Australia to help to surface and deploy new technologies and businesses focused on solving the challenge of drought in Australia’s agricultural environment. So we are going to be working with RDCs [rural research and development corporations], the drought hubs and several other providers of technology, corporate agribusinesses to support the commercialisation of meaningful research and IP [intellectual property] in Australian context.

Drew Radford:

Justin, what key trends and innovations do you see currently shaping the future of AgTech, and how’s Beanstalk adapting to support these?

Justin Ahmed:

I think one that’s probably not new to your listeners, but is increasingly across the minds of many of our clients and the innovators that we work with as well, is around ESG [environmental, social and governance] and sustainability.

Of course, this is not truly new, but I think we’re entering a new phase in this space. We’ve seen a lot of early failures and scrutiny around agricultural technology solutions, and around agribusinesses and investors' efforts to manage the sustainability in the agricultural landscape.

You might’ve seen a Guardian article not that long ago that the estimation, over 90% of carbon projects not actually delivering on what they’d be promising on. And as that journalistic and regulatory scrutiny progresses, there’s a big push for more robust and defensible solutions in the carbon space and elsewhere. What we see is that makes a lot of challenges and opportunities for more diverse use cases and infrastructure that will power a sustainability tech deck in the agricultural technology space.

I think another way that we are trying to shift, and it is tough for the innovation landscape in some space, it’s a recognition that digital tools and software just won't do it all. We really need to see more physical and biological solutions coming to market that are actually managing the physical flows of a lot of these biophysical constraints. Actually seeing real reduction and draw that stirs the drink.

And that's why in our Drought Venture Studio, we are not looking particularly at just promoting SaaS [software as a service] solutions and software-based solutions to a lot of these problems. We’re looking at leveraging the best of Australian technology and IP to wrap ventures around hard science and solutions.

Drew Radford:

So looking beyond our borders, how does Beanstalk view the global AgTech landscape and what opportunities do you see for Victorian AgTech startups to compete on a global scale?

Justin Ahmed:

I think maybe the main message that I’d love to get across to Australian AgTech providers is around the global landscape and how Beanstalk views it, is that it’s increasingly decentralised. We see this as an area where the pool of opportunity is really growing. There’s growing maturity of farmers, agribusinesses, intermediaries in all kinds of countries across the globe, including low and middle-income countries, and there’s a client base that’s hungrier and more pressured than ever, but increasingly smart and scrutinising with the inflow of solutions.

I’m from California. There’s kind of the first place that a lot of AgTech innovators leap from Australia to test their solutions and to build a market is California. But even though Australia is still a small pond and California is not the only big pond. Already, Indonesia’s agriculture sector is the 100 billion dollars industry that Australia is targeting to be in 2030, and India’s literally 5 times that.

So I think it’s important for AgTech providers to consider different paths to market, different destinations, and take that into account as they’re building their solutions and commercial strategies.

Drew Radford:

Justin, you ended up, from all your global travels, in Victoria. What advantages do you think AgTech startups have being based in Victoria?

Justin Ahmed:

It’s been such a great journey over the last 3 years getting to familiarise myself with the Australian, and more specifically the Victorian ecosystem, and I’ve been really impressed in a lot of ways in what Victoria provides. So I'll just call out 3.

The first is the ecosystem. There’s such a budding AgTech ecosystem landscape here in Victoria. So many public support programs. I know there’s been a suite of funding for pre-accelerators supporting the growth of over 400 new startups. They really have their hands full. And there’s such a depth of support from institutions that are really active in this space. So I think it’s important that startups take full advantage of that ecosystem and its support.

Second is just the research and development backbone from universities, TAFE, and in particularly how they’ve been collaborating locally with local agribusinesses. Over 30% of Australia’s food R&D is based in Victoria, and that’s a huge pool of opportunity for AgTech operators to leverage.

Maybe last, maybe most importantly is actually the accessibility and diversity of customers. So I think there are not that many actual startup hubs around the world where you can drive an hour and a half in any direction and be engaging with producers, as diverse that you see here in Victoria, whether broadacre dairy, horticulture grains, and red meats, and agribusinesses investors are here in huge numbers as well. So really important that AgTech operators leverage that, build their base and their network to the full extent there.

Drew Radford:

Lastly, what are your top 3 tips you°d offer startups seeking support and looking to thrive in overseas agricultural markets?

Justin Ahmed:

First, be targeted. Markets are not monoliths. Key decision-makers look and act differently across different markets, and so do different points of influence and impact. Do your diligence and make sure that you know the market that’s right for you.

Second, build a local network. Join WhatsApp, Facebook, email groups, and get folks knowing and looking out for you. Really encourage you to engage and get to know somebody locally who can rep your organisation in target market and help you to translate your top-of-funnel approach and materials to that market.

And thirdly, find financing that works for you. It’s been said a lot. The Silicon Valley model and the venture capital model doesn’t necessarily lend itself to AgTech, maybe even less so to those that are making a bold cross-border jump. We’re seeing all kinds of new pioneering models and really encourage folks to take advantage of non-dilutive capital and in-kind support, a lot like that is provided from public organisations here in Victoria, so we unlock a different pace of growth and nimbleness in your operation.

Drew Radford:

Justin Ahmed, Director at Beanstalk, thank you for taking the time and joining us for this AgTech Innovators podcast.

Justin Ahmed:

Thanks, Drew. Such a pleasure.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to AgTech Innovators. For more episodes in this series, find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. We’d love to hear your feedback, so please leave a comment or rating and share this series with your friends and family.

All information is accurate at the time of release. Contact Agriculture Victoria or your consultant before making any changes on farm. This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria, authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgTech Innovators, keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

Successfully developing a new technology that'll make change and bring new opportunities to the agrifood sector requires vision, skill, perseverance, and importantly money.

G'day, I'm Drew Radford, and there's a range of organisations that can help startups. Arguably one of the most significant is Breakthrough Victoria. They manage the $2 billion Breakthrough Victoria Fund, which is focused on making Victoria a global innovation leader.

Dr Madeleine Mitchell is their Director of Agrifood, and to discuss how they're trying to achieve this global vision, she joins me for this AgTech Innovators Podcast.

Madeleine, thanks for your time.

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

Thanks for having me, Drew.

Drew Radford:

Madeline, you're pretty passionate about agriculture and food as you spent a lot of your life studying it. I understand you've got a doctorate in plant science.

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

Yeah, that's right, Drew. I have a PhD in Plant Sciences. So very broadly speaking, I wanted to do plant sciences because I wanted to develop crops that could benefit farmers, consumers, and the environment, and support the sustainability of agriculture and the rural and regional communities that rely on it. PhDs are naturally very narrow, but my PhD was looking at a mechanism that's evolved in algae to make the photosynthesis more efficient, and that was part of a much longer-term project looking to improve crop yields through improved photosynthesis.

Drew Radford:

It sounds like incredibly complex work and important work. You also mentioned there improving lives in regional areas. That's your background as well. You grew up in regional Victoria.

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

I did. I grew up in Bendigo, and I grew up in Bendigo during the Millennium Drought, so that was a particularly hard time to be farming. While I personally wasn't on the land, I saw the impacts to my friends and communities.

Drew Radford:

You've continued in that vein as well. You've married into a farming family.

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

That I have, yes. My in-laws have a family farm in Western Victoria, and so I actually spend quite a lot of time there on the weekends. We do a bunch of work down there. But in particular, we're actually supporting the management of some native grassland for conservation.

Drew Radford:

I think the connection's really important, though, because you're at both ends of the spectrum, for want of a better description. Now, people often have a perception of someone in a lab coat, as opposed to someone in a lab coat that's also got dirt under their nails.

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

Yeah, that's right. For me, the sciences is the intellectual curiosity piece, but the motivation is as much people as science.

Drew Radford:

Madeline, I read a really nice summary about your career, and the standout line was that you focus on translating research into social, economic, and environmental impact. You've certainly been doing that, but now you've put down the lab coat, for want of a better description, and are working with Breakthrough Victoria. For those that are unfamiliar, what is Breakthrough Victoria?

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

Breakthrough Victoria is an independent investment company, and we manage the Victorian Government's $2 billion Breakthrough Victoria Fund. We've been around since 2021, so we're relatively new. What we do is we invest in companies with breakthrough ideas and technologies that we believe can help solve really significant global problems across our 5 priority sectors. This includes agrifood, it also includes clean economy, health and life sciences, digital technologies, and advanced manufacturing.

Drew Radford:

Right, so pretty broad scope. Your umbrella is agrifood. How do you start to identify and select AgTech startups to support?

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

There's a number of ways we do it. To begin with, I'm actively engaged in the broader agrifood tech ecosystem. I can identify companies that way. If you go to events hosted by SproutX, Rocket Seeder, or Farmers2Founders, you might see me there. But companies can always submit proposals through our website.

Then, once we receive a proposal, we can conduct a pre-screen and decide whether to proceed to due diligence, and ultimately whether to take a paper to our investment committees to finalise an investment.

Drew Radford:

Now, you mentioned there organisations like SproutX. You're working essentially in the same space as them then, are you?

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

We are working in a very similar space. I would say that Breakthrough Victoria and those programs I mentioned we're complementary. They're all working with companies at the really early stage, to get a sense of their technology, their business model, support the founders to get themselves ready for investment in some ways. Then Breakthrough Victoria comes in at that point to then consider doing direct equity investing in these companies.

I'd also say that Breakthrough Victoria, we can operate at quite a broad scale, and so we can do everything from the earlier stage, pre-seed smaller investments, right up to companies that are more in the growth stage.

Drew Radford:

Are there specific criteria that you focus on when you're trying to weigh these things up? You've got people knocking at your door.

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

Yes, there are definitely specific criteria and it is always a challenge.

To begin with, we look for technologies that meet our high innovation threshold. That's part of our mandate. Sometimes, but not always, companies may have spun out of research institutions like universities and CSIRO. Really, when we take a first look at a proposal, we're looking for how the technology is novel, and what kinds of sustainable competitive advantages that might then give the company.

Secondly, we look for connections to and benefits for Victoria. Again, that's part of our mandate and we are state government funded, so we look to support Victorian companies and the commercialisation of Victorian Intellectual Property (IP). But we also consider broader benefits. We might consider whether the benefits of attracting companies to Victoria through an investment. We're looking at job creation, building new industries, and new sovereign capability. All of those are part of what we consider the benefits to Victoria.

Then finally, as well as the innovation and the impact, we look at the commercial side of the company. We look at the deal structure and then the impact of a potential investment on our overall portfolio. There's really quite a few things to consider, but the very first screen is on the innovation and the impact.

Drew Radford:

You said there's quite a few things to consider, that's a bit of an understatement to say the least. Forensic is probably the way I'd describe it. When you're managing that sort of money, that's what one would expect. But you've got a very clear scientific background, but you must have a lot of support there at Breakthrough Victoria trying to assess those other criteria. Everything from market possibility to sovereign capability, there's a lot there.

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

It's definitely not all me. Where I sit in the broader company is that I'm in portfolio management. A lot of what I do is support the companies that we've invested in the ways that, I suppose, are appropriate to their stage. But I do spend a lot of my time conducting due diligence alongside the investment team. They're the ones who are going to look at the market commercial opportunity.

But where the proposals come to me first is around that innovation. Does the science make sense? Is this addressing a real industry problem? Does it make sense for Victorian agriculture?

At this point too, I might mention that in agrifood tech at Breakthrough Victoria, we have shorter-term priorities at the moment around sustainability and biotechnology. These we've identified because they're areas that are both important for the broader sector and they align with Victoria's strengths.

For example, we have this focus on export markets. We have research and development in biotechnology and food manufacturing and processing capability. That's also the part of the work that I'm responsible for.

Drew Radford:

You've obviously got a lot going on within the doors of Breakthrough Victoria, and you also mentioned earlier that people may see you at external events. But I'm assuming you collaborate a lot with other stakeholders in the AgTech ecosystem, whether they're government agencies, or industry players, or other research institutes.

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

That's right, we do.

Breakthrough Victoria as a whole engages with a really broad range of stakeholders. We are well-connected to the different parts of government and we can facilitate introductions there, where appropriate. I obviously have stronger connections with Agriculture Victoria and with the food manufacturing experts.

What we're hoping to do as well, within the agrifood part of Breakthrough Victoria is to complement the existing strategies, say with Agriculture Victoria strategy and broader commitments to food waste reduction and to net-zero emissions that we're seeing across government.

Our network also includes investors. We work with research and development corporations and other industry players within agrifood. The other thing, I suppose, that I'm less involved with, but that's a really important part of what we are doing, is that Breakthrough Victoria has set up university innovation platforms. That's where we've made a co-contribution to a pre-seed fund, and that's to increase the commercialisation of really critical translational research across Victorian universities.

Drew Radford:

That's all the groundwork and the criteria. How do you go about measuring the impact and your support for AgTech startups?

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

It's a really great question, because impact is very much part of why we exist. To begin with, we're really interested in the success of the individual company. Whether they're meeting their commercial and technical milestones. But then we do also take an interest in the broader ESG, environmental, social and governance areas, as well as the impact for the company and more broadly.

For example, we support companies to consider their own environmental footprint, and also ways to be inclusive of diversity, because we understand that in order to solve some of these really big challenges and take advantages of these technologies and commercialisation opportunities, we really do need diverse people to make that work in the best possible way.

Drew Radford:

Madeline, we've talked a lot about the structure of the space you work in, but let's find out about some of the organisations you've actually worked with and helped. What are some of the success stories that you've had so far?

Dr Madeline Mitchell:The caveat to this is that they are early-stage companies, and so when we're talking impact, we have hopes around the type of impact they'll achieve.

The first example is Smart Paddock. This is a small, light, battery-free ear tag for cattle, and it comes alongside a data platform. There are some benefits there for animal welfare and general farm management. The geolocation of the animals can tell you whether they're lost, maybe stolen, or their activity can also tell you whether they're calving or ill or another form of distress. There are the benefits there for the farmer, but we're also looking to see the benefits for consumers and supply chains.

For example, this same kind of data can be used to demonstrate sustainability credentials or for example, in the EU at the moment, there's a really big focus on sourcing agricultural products that are not linked to deforestation. That's the kind of data that can feed into those kinds of claims.

What we've seen Smart Paddock do in the last, say 18 months since our investment, is that they've been improving their tags and building out the data platform and the insights for the farmer. That's delivering greater value to them. They're also looking at scaling up their production so that more producers can then take advantage of this technology.

The second example is a newer investment for us, and that's in a company called Eden Brew. The technology first was developed through CSIRO, and they've since further developed the technology.

The technology itself is based on something called precision fermentation. Precision fermentation is a relatively established technology, so we use it currently to make insulin. Insulin used to be extracted from pig pancreas, but now we can make microbes, yeast, to then brew or ferment these proteins. What Eden Brew is doing is they're producing dairy proteins without the cow. This is really exciting, because it will be a new source of protein, and we have this challenge around producing enough food to feed the world and enough protein to meet people's growing demands for protein. Then this precision fermentation technology, we believe, will be able to produce a nature-identical milk with lower emissions, water, and land use than an animal-based system.

These are all metrics we can track as the company grows. But in the shorter-term, we also see Eden Brew contributing to the food science and synthetic biology and biotechnology ecosystem in Victoria.

Drew Radford:

That is quite remarkable technology, with potential huge impacts across the globe. Is there anything that's about to roll out the door that you're particularly proud of?

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

There is. We have just announced an investment in Jupiter Ionics. This is a company that has spun out of Monash University, and they're developing an electrochemical cell that can be powered by renewable energy to make carbon-neutral ammonia. That's very, very exciting. The main use of the ammonia will be for fertiliser. It can also be used as an alternative fuel.

Alongside the reduced emissions of this production system, you can make ammonia in a modular and decentralised way. There's a whole lot of benefits that come from that. When this technology is at scale. We will see really big benefits for emissions reduction in agriculture. This is going to become increasingly important to meet our broader net-zero goals, but also potentially retain access to certain markets.

But through this, let's say, community scale, smaller scale approach to fertiliser production, we can reduce the price volatility we've seen for fertiliser, particularly urea over the last few years, and we can also address those supply chain concerns at the moment. It's a long process to get urea to Australia. On top of that, we see the potential for better soil fertility management if we have a more on-demand type production system for fertiliser. There's a lot of things to be excited about there.

Drew Radford:

You started a career as a scientist, and you still are obviously a scientist but trying to make change and bring benefits to society. You're actually kind of at the other end of the circle now. You're helping others do that. That must be exciting and fulfilling.

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

Yeah, it really is exciting and fulfilling. It was one of the reasons why I began the transition away from doing my own research, was because I realised how much I enjoyed that broader stakeholder engagement. Also, how I could perhaps be involved in more immediate impact. The R&D is very important, but it's a much longer-term impact. As a scientist who enjoys communicating with a range of people, this is a space where I can really contribute in that sense, and I can also still be engaged with researchers. But it's really that potential for impact and, as you say, the enabling of impact through these companies and through these individuals. It is very exciting.

Drew Radford:

Lastly, Madeline, what 3 tips would you give to Victorian AgTech startups when trying to compete at a global scale?

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

I think where we have some real strength is around our research and development, and the support for industry research collaboration within Australia. We also have really diverse agriculture and an agriculture system and climate. There's an opportunity to prove the technology here and then export that more broadly. With Breakthrough Victoria as well, we obviously want to see the benefits to Victoria, but what we would like is to see the companies be successful, and that may include a global footprint.

In terms of the actual scale-up, I would just say that it's important to have a well-thought-out approach to that. It can be easy, I think, as a startup to try and do too many things or spread resources too thin. It's great to think internationally but having those key stages and constant milestones along the way when you're thinking about the scale-up.

Drew Radford:

Well, Dr. Madeline Mitchell, it sounds like you and the team at Breakthrough Victoria are doing remarkable work in assisting Victorian startups develop and grow.

Thank you for taking the time and joining us for this AgTech Innovators Podcast.

Dr Madeline Mitchell:

Thanks a lot, Drew. It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to AgTech Innovators.

For more episodes in this series, find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts.

We'd love to hear your feedback, so please leave a comment or rating and share this series with your friends and family.

All information is accurate at the time of release. Contact Agriculture Victoria or your consultant before making any changes on farm.

This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria, authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgTech Innovators, keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

Imagine having access to a free mapping system that lets you see, at a farm level, what's happened in the past with things like climate, fire, and flood. And then, what might happen in the future.

G'day, I'm Drew Radford, and what I'm describing is actually unfolding across Victoria, and it's called Digital Twin Victoria, or DTV for short.

Alena Moison:

Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.

Drew Radford:

Alena, the term Digital Twin Victoria, I don't reckon a lot of people would be familiar with that. It conjures up all sorts of images, how would you describe it?

Alena Moison:

So Digital Twin Victoria, or DTV, it sits within the Department of Transport and Planning, and as a program, it was kicked off almost 4 years ago now to look at using digital twin technology, geospatial data, and spatial innovation.

Now, a digital twin is a concept that has come around over the past 30 years and is available in lots of different disciplines, and essentially what it is, is it's a digital replica of a physical system or a technology. And so what we are doing in Digital Twin Victoria is we've built the first statewide spatial digital twin, and it's leveraging the power of spatial, or mapped data, and technology to create a comprehensive, accurate model of the entire state of Victoria online for anyone to use and build on.

Drew Radford:

That's a lot of data. So in my simplistic view, I'm envisaging all those planning offices, whether they're council or utilities or whatever, and they've got rooms full of maps and drawings. These have all been collated into digital versions and built up into a 3D image of the state?

Alena Moison:

Absolutely. I mean, I think that process of digitisation of a lot of our data sets that run government has been taking place over decades. And then in addition to that, we have new sensor technologies that are pushing real-time information to us all of the time. We have incredibly high-resolution digital imagery data that's coming from aerial systems and even satellites.

We really are a data-rich society, so Digital Twin Victoria is about bringing that together so that we can use it for very targeted outcomes.

Drew Radford:

I see the line of one single source of truth. If you're bringing all these things together, you're often used to hear stories, ‘Yeah, but their planning boundary is different to our planning boundary.’ How do you validate all of that?

Alena Moison:

That's a very good point. Data governance, who is the actual data custodian or authoritative source of information, is a really important thing for us to understand and be transparent about.

And we do find, when we're bringing data sets together, they don't always line up, but it's important for us to make that clear that there is a discrepancy so that we can query it and come to an outcome where we have the same picture of the state. Particularly for those attributes that are really important, like you mentioned, maybe property boundaries or similar.

We all need to have the same picture of that, and we need to be making decisions based on the same information, otherwise, it'll only happen that we're making decisions that contravene each other.

Drew Radford:

So why is this important? We all move into the digital realm, but how's this helping business planning the state of Victoria?

Alena Moison:

So what the program has done is we've really focused on supporting a range of use cases that do things like support economic recovery through digital workflows, and reducing red tape, and essentially, making smarter faster services.

So as an example of this, we built solutions like eComply, which enables a new home designed to be automatically approved, running hundreds of really complex compliance checks against the housing code in seconds, bringing that work down from weeks to mere seconds. Things like that where we've leveraged technologies to increase the speed at which government is servicing the community.

Drew Radford:

Down to seconds, that's a dramatic change in terms of efficiency of getting things done.

Alena Moison:

That's the level of efficiency that we are talking about when we're looking at really bringing in some of these technologies and bringing them together. They all operate on a consistent framework of data, but then from that, you can really scale up processes to be very smart so that we can focus on things that matter. So we're not just pushing paper around or checking the same figures again and again, we're getting to the heart of the value that we're delivering.

Drew Radford:

Let's turn our attention to how you apply that in regional areas. I understand recently, you're involved with the Ararat City Council on their Digital Twin Spotlight Project. Can you tell us about the project?

Alena Moison:

So this is a great project to be involved with and there's a couple of parts of the project. So the first was the launch at the end of last year of what they call the Fab Lab, which is a great name for a place, at the Ararat Jobs and Technology Precinct. And this is a great new collaborative space for the community that showcases a bunch of digital tech that people can actually come in, and touch, and play around with. They can see how these sensors and technologies are used, and they can experiment with them in a hands-on way.

So they have, for example, sensors that are tracking water levels. They have examples of how the rubbish sensors work that they're installing across the council, and you can see even how they use a 3D printer to print customised sensor covers. And they've got also data visualisations coming in from all of these things. And on top of that, they bring in vendors and researchers to demonstrate how those innovations can help the community, and particularly, the farming community in Ararat.

And the second major part of the project is the delivery of a real-time weather monitoring network for Ararat, which is almost in place as we speak now. The network will include 25 weather monitoring units placed across Ararat to pilot on-farm use cases of Internet of Things or IoT technology. And once that's set up, it's going to seamlessly connect all that data back into the DTV platform for visualisation and further analysis.

Drew Radford:

Well, you mentioned the farming community there and you touched on it with the weather stations. Can you maybe elaborate a little bit further on how the project assists the farming community in the region?

Alena Moison:

So the regional sensor network hasn't fully launched yet, but when it does, it'll begin feeding data into the DTV platform, and what we're looking for is for that to support 2 things.

So first is real-time localised weather monitoring to enable precise resource management. So allowing farmers to take that information for improving and targeting better irrigation, fertilisation, and pesticide regimes based on the data that's coming in from those sensors.

And then secondly, remote monitoring. So being able to provide real-time insights into crop and herd conditions, and over time, help support the automation of labour-intensive tasks. So helping the farming community to really scale up their capacity.

Drew Radford:

That's a remarkable trove of information. How do you make that digestible to a primary producer who's got to be an expert in everything from flying headers, which are literally like flying a plane these days, to having detailed agronomic insights? Or is it becoming more now needing experts helping draw that information together and make it applicable?

Alena Moison:

It's a great question because certainly, making that volume of information digestible and useful to people is a real challenge. We see that in the digital twin with other domains as well, where we've got hundreds of climate change models available and similar, quite scientifically detailed models that are very hard for the average person to come in and understand.

What I can say about the data that's coming in from the Ararat sensor network though is, firstly, it is targeted to the farming community that lives there, and they do know their patch very, very well. So when they start to get new sources of information, they are actually able to interpret that and tie that to things that they're seeing on the ground. So it is really supposed to be a support for them in making those decisions on the farm rather than something that's completely abstracted from it. It is very much tied to those conditions.

So if they're seeing information that's informing them about why particular things are happening in their crops, then they're going to start to see those patterns being articulated through the data, and then with that, they can build up some processes around it so they can say, ‘Okay, well, a few days before this event, we started to see this kind of pattern in the data. If we see that again, then we would want to jump on it and do X, Y, or Z.’

So, it's really about helping to inform them about things they already know quite a lot about, but just giving them another tool in their toolbox.

Drew Radford:

A remarkable tool, to say the least. You mentioned the Internet of Things, fundamental to all of this is data, but the backbone is always connectivity with this. I imagine that would've been one of just a range of challenges you encountered with this project.

Alena Moison:

Absolutely. One of the key technology providers in Ararat who are providing their 5G network as underpinning this sensor network, and it is about leveraging that capability and then building on top of it, but it does require that base level of internet connectivity that then you can start to tie in these technologies too.

The weather sensor network itself may be new, but the farmers who are installing them on their properties are highly informed consumers. They've adapted to an enormous amount of technical change in their industry over the last few decades, and I think that's informed them about what it is they're looking for, how they can best adapt and manage the change within their farms to get the best out of technology.

Drew Radford:

With the weather sensors that you mentioned, is that a collaboration with an agency like the Bureau of Meteorology or some other expert body? Because I imagine you need the right sensors in the right location to give you the quality data you need.

Alena Moison:

Absolutely, and that's where it's been really critical to have that partnership as well as with Federation University, but also the technology providers to make sure that that is being set up with the range across the municipality that's going to be required to give them that data.

Now you mentioned the Bureau of Meteorology, obviously, they have a sensor network across the whole of Australia, but it is at a coarser level. It's not at that really highly localised level that you might see farmers really asking for. It's not that they want to know what's happening at Ararat, overall, they really want to see what's happening in their valley or in their patch.

And so having this kind of data richness across the council will actually start to provide a much better localised weather information than we've had in the past.

Drew Radford:

Yeah, we often talk about microclimates, but this is really putting your thumb on it, I guess.

Alena Moison:

We hope so, and I think it'll be a good test of how necessary that is and in what kind of conditions that's useful. You can also find that you've got too much data, so you want to get the balance right between just an overwhelming, unnecessary amount of information, and that sweet spot of where it's really informing you about things that are important.

Drew Radford:

Stepping away from Ararat, how do you think digital twins can support the Victorian agricultural sector on a broader scale?

Alena Moison:

I think that DTV has the potential to add value to the ag sector in a couple of ways around enhancing efficiency and sustainability, but also global competitiveness. I think it's essential to recognise that the true potential of any tech project really must unfold through collaboration with the community. You've got to leverage their expertise and innovation; you can't just throw a technology at them and expect it to stick.

But in my opinion, there's 3 straightforward opportunities with digital twins right now. The first is operational, so bringing together all of that on-farm data, all those sensors that you have into one place to help manage it. We are talking to some of the SmartFarm initiatives now across the state, like in Ellinbank, looking to help showcase how that can be done and work through what the challenges might be on that. But you can also leverage that data to test future scenarios. So to look at the impacts on-farm under an emergency, it could be a pest or a disease outbreak, a fire, a flood, and to use these spatial data and tools to help you understand what could happen in that kind of an event.

Drew Radford:

That's a very powerful, and I'd argue, quite an accurate predictor in those occasions. You've been overlaying data and seeing where things may go.

Alena Moison:

We talk about DTV being 4D. So what that means is you've got a 3D platform, so you can see height and elevation, but the fourth dimension is where you add time into it. So you can see for an area what's happened in the past and what's predicted to happen in the future. So you can get that full suite across time for what kind of scenarios may need to be adapted to.

For example, if you're looking at flooding, maybe you look at historical floods to understand how that went, and you can look at climate change scenarios about what kind of flooding might be expected in the future. And between those 2 points in time, you can really start to assess, have you got the strategies in place to manage effectively what's happened in the past as well as what might happen in the future?

Drew Radford:

That's a very powerful tool when you put it in that context. One of the big debates in agriculture is provenance. We see name changes wrestles with the EU, but it's also an important selling point, and you've got so much data there for specific locations. Will that help in that discussion?

Alena Moison:

Yes, I think that's an incredible opportunity that we have here because we do have such rich data sources, and we have the digital twin. We can really bring that together to enhance the branding, and the trust and transparency in Victorian ag products

So, I really think Digital Twin Victoria can be a fantastic tool for providing more immersive experiences and evidence of the quality of that supply chain that we offer. Enhancing traceability and assurance to our trading partners, seeing high quality satellite or aerial imagery of the farm your food's coming from, seeing the region, seeing live graphs of the renewable energy on the farm. These are really highly useful and relevant tools, I think, for communicating the value of our products.

Drew Radford:

Lastly, what ways do you think Digital Twin Victoria can support AgTech entrepreneurs and AgTech startups? Because you got a lot of data there that I imagine that a lot of them might be interested in.

Alena Moison:

It facilitates access to that repository of data that we've talked about, and capabilities and data that were previously hard or even impossible to get to. This really democratises data to allow those AgTech startups to utilise the data to inform their innovations, reducing the need for extensive groundwork and data collection, trying to ferret out information from various places. So, access to that rich data resource can really accelerate the research and development phases, allowing for more rapid prototyping and iteration.

The platform that we've built also empowers entrepreneurs to create customised digital twins for their specific needs. So, we talked about all of the public data that's out there and available in the digital twin, but we're also able to build really customised digital replicas of farms that have all those unique attributes and dynamics in them, and that can be restricted to a specific group. I think there's a lot of value in that in building out that capability to help AgTech entrepreneurs.

Drew Radford:

Alena, it really is a very exciting future. Thanks, really, to an amazing collation of data, which gives the foundation to make the best possible decisions from. Alena Moison from Digital Twin Victoria, thanks for giving us an insight to that future on this AgTech Innovators podcast.

Alena Moison:

My pleasure, Drew.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to AgTech Innovators. For more episodes in this series, find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts.

We'd love to hear your feedback, so please leave a comment or rating, and share this series with your friends and family.

All information is accurate at the time of release. Contact Agriculture Victoria or your consultant before making any changes on-farm.

This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria, authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgTech Innovators, keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

Startup University. If you've got an idea that you believe will take the world by storm, this would probably be the place you'd want to enrol. Sadly though, it doesn't exist, or does it? G’day. I'm Drew Radford, and although The Startup Network is not actually a university, it is a community, one that focuses on helping create successful startups. To understand how that works, I'm joined for this AgTech Innovators Podcast by The Startup Network's Head of Community, Ryan Burns, thanks for your time.

Ryan Burns:

Oh, very happy to be here.

Drew Radford:

Ryan, we're going to be talking about the work you currently do helping startups but I understand that you've been on the other side of the fence for want of a better description. you've worked with venture capital firms on the other side of the world as well.

Ryan Burns:

Yeah, yeah. Fortunately before my time in Australia began, I was in the venture capital world, specifically in the seed space, which is the early stage founder space and worked for some fantastic firms, one of which is First Round Capital, the first investor in Uber and Roblox and Notion and many other startup unicorns. And also got to work with Generate Capital, which has about a 10 billion capital raise to build the infrastructure for tomorrow, including a bunch of AgTech and solar projects around the world.

Drew Radford:

I said the other side of the fence, because you are working in the space that startups want to meet, they want to get access to that capital. So it gives you a unique perspective.

Ryan Burns:

Yeah, it sure does. It allows me to help maybe navigate those waters a little bit easier for a potential founder, especially the folks that are maybe a little bit hesitant about going out on their own, venturing into some sort of idea that they had and maybe breaking it down for them to say, ‘Hey, any normal person out there can create something special.’ And the reason I know this is because I met many normal people that turn out to be amazing founders. And working on that other side of the fence, you get to see this growth of a founder that really just turns a simple idea into sometimes a billion-dollar business.

Drew Radford:

I love that description you said there, navigate those waters. Can you expand upon what the actual network does and how it helps Victorian AgTech startups?

Ryan Burns:

For us, we have a simple mission, and it is just to support the founders of tomorrow specifically in the state of Victoria but also throughout Australia.

And we do that in a variety of ways. One is with our in-person and virtual events, which provide some sort of educational content or some sort of learning that a founder would go through. And then also the opportunity to meet other folks that are going through that same journey, whether they are a fellow founder, maybe they meet their first investor at one of our events, maybe they meet their co-founder, maybe they have some sort of a light bulb turn on while we're delivering some sort of information.

Our goal is to help you turn your dreams into reality, and that's with practical educational content like our programs and then also impractical stuff like a pat on the back or directing you into the correct area where maybe you were drifting off into rough waters, as I was saying, and get you back on the straight and narrow sometimes with some direction.

Drew Radford:

I like that educational description because I was looking at your website and I was thinking, ‘This is almost like a startup university.’ It seems to be providing the foundations of asking some hard questions before you go on the journey of looking for capital.

Ryan Burns:

I would agree. I think one of our main areas is called Start Now. It's really just the ability to start your idea and how to do that. So let's say you had some groundbreaking idea in your head, how do you put that onto paper? How do you put that into action and how do you get that into the market? And then we have programs that go all the way into starting and then eventually going to market to be able to sell to large enterprise businesses, maybe to take that solution that you're using at home that is some sort of time saver for you and turn it into some real value to a large community of customers or maybe fellow AgTech entrepreneurs.

Drew Radford:

Just to be clear, you are not actually in the capital space, but once you've gone through some of those programs, if I understand it correctly, you're providing the opportunity to occasionally meet with people that are in that space?

Ryan Burns:

Yeah, correct. We don't have any current fund or any sort of investment arm as part of The Startup Network, but we do have a very large community of investors that are either in our startup community or work with us and partner with us. We have a few VC firms in our partnership as well as many family offices and a variety of angel investments. What we can do is we can do those introductions for you. And eventually if you get big enough, then we can use our reach to get you into those big firm meetings as well where it's a little bit tougher sometimes to do that on your own to maybe have that intro. And we do provide that option for folks that are maybe struggling to get that first meeting or to be able to get that pitch deck into the right hands.

Drew Radford:

I imagine also once I've gone through these programs, that pitch deck is in the state that it needs to be, either they step through someone's door and they're ready to tell their story and articulate what they're looking for. I mean, this is about elevator pitches, I guess, getting them narrowed down and making sure that you're on your front foot when you do get that opportunity.

Ryan Burns:

Exactly. And we work with a really fantastic pitch coach and he has an entire program with his 6 pillars of more or less telling a story that what is the problem that's happening, why are you the one to fix that problem, how do you become the hero to that story. He does a fantastic job. We have a monthly pitch night so that we have folks from around the community that come and pitch their ideas and pitch their startups and they get the chance to win a pretty large prize pack.

Drew Radford:

You mentioned there AgTech, and you also mentioned it when you were talking about the work you did in VC capital areas overseas. It's an area of interest for you and specialisation?

Ryan Burns:

Yeah, exactly. It's a personal interest of mine because one of the first founders I met was the founder of Bowery Farming, which is an urban farming startup in the Brooklyn area of New York City. You wouldn't think there'd be many farms in Brooklyn, but this whole urban farming is really starting to come about.

And it's now starting to grow into Melbourne where the last pitch night, we actually had a few firms that were doing urban farming as well. This is used in a variety of ways with vertical farming setups and hydroponic watering and automatic lights. It's very, very technically brilliant, but it's also for a really great cause I believe in, which is to close this gap of hunger for folks that are struggling as well as to provide opportunities in this farming area, in this AgTech sector to anyone that wants to do it, not just people that are out on a farm somewhere, but anyone that wants to participate in that economy can.

Drew Radford:

It's an important reconnection with where our food comes from, which you don't often get that opportunity these days to have.

Ryan Burns:

Yeah. And I would say it's probably another personal thing for me because I come from California, one of the major farming areas in the world. It feeds 1/3 of the country in the United States and it's the leader in so many different types of agricultural products, but it's a really great intersection between government, private farmers and technology that all produce this behemoth of an industry out there. And I just think it could be done elsewhere, not just in California. There's other states like Iowa and there's other countries, and I believe Australia can be one of those countries that really just turn out the best products at a tremendous rate.

Drew Radford:

How are you helping achieve that in Australia through the work that you are doing? Your role is actually Head of Community. What does that actually mean?

Ryan Burns:

So the work that we do is really getting the folks that are maybe out doing the testing of their product or doing that beta product building out onto the farm or even just in some sort of a workshop and getting them in front of people that can maybe help them make that product a little bit more feasible to the masses. And so a great example is we had some family farmers from the Gippsland area that have a sort of energy hardware system that saves water and time so that you can produce more crops at a lower rate of energy use. That's just something they developed on their own farm. And so when they came to us, they basically wanted the chance to pitch this idea, which they did. And eventually they got connected with the right people and got some grants and got some funding to extend that project.

So for me, as the Head of Community, it's really just using the main skills of connecting the people that need the help with the ones that can help. And then in the interim, making sure that nobody's left out in the cold. So even if you're just a single founder who doesn't have any contacts that doesn't really know anything about this industry, there's a place for you. There's also a place for that person that's built an enterprise business that is worth a couple billion dollars. So it's really big umbrella we have.

Drew Radford:

That is a big umbrella and a good example of a primary producer developing an idea, but not even sure whether it can go further from there because a startup's not the thing that's in their wheelhouse.

Ryan Burns:

Yeah, it sounds a little bit intimidating when you first venture out into something. Very similar to my experience. I used to manage hotels before all this. And to jump into that VC world, I didn't know simple things like the vocabulary of what people were saying around me. When somebody had said, ‘Hey, this guy has a great MVP,’ at the time I thought that meant most valuable player. I did not know that meant minimal viable product.

And so a lot of times when someone that is in that agriculture sector, they feel a little bit, ‘Oh, I don't know if my idea will work or I don't know if I have the right way to make this happen.½ Well, that's kind of my job, is to make sure that we demystify the experience and say, ‘Hey, anybody that wants to go out there and have their own venture that come to us first, at least let us get you set up with the right tools and then go out there and see what you can do. And then along the way, come to our events and meet the people that you need to meet. And let's see what happens.’

Many times startups only fail because you quit. The main, I would say, overriding quality of a successful founder is that they don't quit. That's the main thing.

Drew Radford:

Ryan, how can potential entrepreneurs engage with The Startup Network?

Ryan Burns:

There's a variety of ways. We have some pretty low-cost options. In fact, a free option. If you want to join as a member, you become a free member, you'll get access to our community of over 6,000 members here in Victoria and 60,000 members throughout Australia. We have a huge amount of resources for you, whether that's discounts to certain types of startup services or different types of tools that you'll need to build your product.

And then if you do want to get into a paid membership, you get the inclusives of all those programs we talked about, learning how to brand your product, learning how to decide if you need paid advertising. What about if you wanted to expand to the US, ‘How do I do that?’ All those type of things are included in a base membership.

And then my favourite part is the events, is that you can go to our monthly Pitch Nights or all the way into our Founder Connects series, which is purely based about meeting founders, meeting investors, and maybe just talking about your product in a way that you can hear yourself explain it and maybe something that happened in terms of a light bulb or some sort of recognition and that you have to change something. I think it's just a variety of all those things together that really work with the eventual goal that you'll be off to the races creating your own startup. And at the worst-case scenario, you have a good time and meet some new people.

Drew Radford:

Lastly, Ryan, what would your top 3 tips be for prospective Victorian AgTech entrepreneurs?

Ryan Burns:

The main thing with any successful founder is, one, is being obsessed with the problem that you're trying to solve. If that's a, let's just say water scarcity. In the country of Australia, it's quite a precious resource, water is. So, if you have something that can lower the water usage per crop, you should probably be obsessed with water and you should be obsessed with saving water.

Number 2, the most successful founders that I know are customer-obsessed. You should rely and talk to them as much as possible so that you can really refine your product and they can tell you what you need to do because the customer and that they're going to know it better than anybody.

And then lastly, I'm a natural optimist, and I believe if you're positive and you think positive things will happen positively in your life. It sounds a little bit fluffy and a little bit existential, but for me, I believe that the more you put out there into the universe and the good, it can just come back to you. And so the main founders that I meet are the biggest optimists in the world.  Some of them are a little bit too optimistic, but the ones that are pessimistic almost always fail.

And so believe in yourself, believe in your product, and go out there and you'll never understand how great of a feeling it is when you really do succeed. And the level of success I've seen is where you have these things called liquidation events, and that's in the US where all of a sudden your product that you built 5, 6 years ago, it gets acquired by some big company and you're able to pay your first 10 employees millions of dollars on the payout.  Or you do an IPO for your company and all of a sudden you're reaping benefits that you would've never thought, and you don't have to work another day in your life, and neither do the 150 employees that work for you.

And so those type of moments are great for the money, but it's also just great to be able to change the lives of the people that you love and the people that you support.

Drew Radford:

Well, Ryan, you're doing a great job of supporting Victorian AgTech entrepreneurs. And you literally exude that positivity that you're talking about. For now though, Ryan Burns, Head of Community for The Startup Network, thank you so much for joining us for this AgTech Innovators podcast.

Ryan Burns:

Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to AgTech Innovators. For more episodes in this series, find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts.

We'd love to hear your feedback, so please leave a comment or rating and share this series with your friends and family.

All information is accurate at the time of release. Contact Agriculture Victoria or your consultant before making any changes on farm.

This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria, authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgTech Innovators. Keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

Grower led innovation. On the face of it, it's a pretty self-explanatory term, but it becomes a little harder to grasp when put in the same sentence as AgTech startups and venture capital. G’day, I'm Drew Radford and you quickly gain some clarity about its role in the future of AgTech, if you speak with Peter Wren-Hilton. He's CEO of global agritech consultancy, Wharf42. He's also had key roles in the development of AgTech ecosystems in Australia and New Zealand. Peter joins me for this AgTech Innovators podcast. Thanks for your time.

Peter Wren-Hilton:

It's great to join you, Drew. I'm really looking forward to it.

Drew Radford:

Peter, having a look at your bio, I reckon that saying agritech is your life is by no means an understatement. You've established Agritech New Zealand in 2018. You helped establish the Australian New Zealand Agritech Council. You've been on the steering committee for eVoke Ag, and now you run your own AgTech consultancy. Where's this passion for agritech come from?

Peter Wren-Hilton:

It's a great question. My personal background actually is in tech rather than agri. So, 35 years ago I worked for a company called Apple Computers because 35 years ago that's all we did. This predated the mobile era. And so, I spent several years working in that environment. My interest in agri really developed around about 10 years ago when I was living in Silicon Valley. I saw this new asset class called AgTech developing but realised that very little of the investment going into that new asset class was heading over towards New Zealand or Australia. So, in 2015 with my wife, we returned to New Zealand, where I'm based, and we learnt very quickly some of the challenges that the sector here faced. Government agencies weren't always talking to each other. There was a lot of domestic competition for local agritech firms. Also, a lot of sectors were just managed by two companies. So, competition rather than collaboration was the name of the game. And so, I understood pretty quickly why New Zealand wasn't an attractive place for international investors to invest in. By 2018, we'd broken down enough walls and silos to build Agritech New Zealand, and the rest of, they say, is really history.

Drew Radford:

You make that sound simple, but I'm sure there was a little bit more involved than that because startup culture really isn't in the DNA of either country until recently.

Peter Wren-Hilton:

I think that's absolutely fair. I mean, one of the things that I learnt when I was in Silicon Valley was how ecosystems are built. So, in 2014, again, back in New Zealand, I co-founded WNT Ventures, which is a early stage venture firm, that really looks at very nascent IP, really with a view to seeing how we could build that into real startups and commercialise that. So, I absolutely agree with you. Startup mentality hasn't been part of the New Zealand or Australia psyche for very long. But I would say in the last 10 years things have moved obviously considerably forward. And when I look at Australia and Victoria in particular, over the last three to four years in the agritech sector, and I've seen huge movements forward. So, that I think is hugely positive.

Drew Radford:

It is hugely positive and clearly you're a person who has gone, well, look, I'm not going to let this stop me. I'm going to triumph over this. And that's pretty much the approach every startup needs. So, focusing on your experience then with the AgTech sector, what are the most promising areas you see there at present?

Peter Wren-Hilton:

I think in part, some of my views are probably coloured by the fact I do spend a fair amount of time in the U.S., particularly California. So, over the past few years I've developed a pretty strong relationship with the California Department of Food and Agriculture on the government side and with an organisation called Western Growers on the grower side. But some of the challenges that they face are very familiar to Australian farmers and growers. So, I'd look at three particular areas.

The first I would look at is water. California, like Australia, has suffered significant drought for a number of years, obviously with our changing climate, and sometimes that can be completely reversed. So rather than drought, we face floods. And so, water has been a challenge and I think that remains a great opportunity for AgTech companies.

Another area is labour and that's really lack of and cost of. Both Australia, California and definitely New Zealand over the past few years have had huge issues around labour. And so, the opportunity I see for AgTech there is around increased levels of automation and that can be automation in terms of weeding, pruning, harvesting. So, that opportunity for automation robotics, I think, is very real.

And the final area is one that I'm currently involved with, which is a little bit unusual for me. It was only something I got involved with probably 3 or 4 years ago. And that's a reflection of the fact that globally regulators are saying to farmers and growers, we want to see less chemical pesticides on the land and more biologicals. And when you export to regions like Europe, the EU have got some pretty stringent rules coming into force between 2028 and 2030. And unless we move away from some of those chemical pesticides, we simply won't be able to export to those markets. So, I think this whole world of biologicals is a very interesting and exciting one for AgTech startups involved in that space.

Drew Radford:

In regard to that, I've seen you use the term, I'm not sure I have it exactly correct, but I think it's grower led startups. Is that the term that you've used in this space?

Peter Wren-Hilton:

Very close. The first two words are correct. It's grower led innovation, and I think that partly reflects a trend that's occurred in the last two to three years, where we've seen a significant decrease in the amount of venture capital coming into the AgTech sector. Now that's not just AgTech, that's across the whole tech sector, but recently AgFunder reported in their annual 2023 investment review, that there had basically been a 50% reduction in new venture investments into AgTech and that follows a 44% decline in the year before in 2022. And so, what we found is that because the need for growers and farmers is so great, we're seeing more innovations being led by farmers and growers. And a great example is an initiative, that I'm involved with in California, called Platform 10, which is being led by Western Growers. What we're going to is make that a global partner network. And so, we'll be involving growers and farmers in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Holland, Israel and other countries keen to take part. And what this means is that farmers and growers will be leading field trials to test different biological products to ensure that they can meet the requirements that they have, rather than the requirements that venture capital has, which is obviously much more based on financial return and doesn't necessarily equate to the challenges that farmers and growers might have trying to sell product offshore if they're still using those old chemical pesticides. So, that's where we came up with this concept of grower-led innovation.

Drew Radford:

It's a fantastic concept, but I'm left asking the question. There still needs to be money from somewhere to be developing these biological approaches, isn't there?

Peter Wren-Hilton:

You're absolutely right. And to be honest, the venture capitalists love the grower-led innovation concept because what it means is that growers are running the field trials. And my experience, generally speaking, I think this is true of probably most AgTech startups and even established AgTech companies, that the best way in which you can get adoption by farmers and growers is a recommendation from other farmers and growers. And so, the venture capital industry is actually looking at these field trials very closely because what they're looking for are the winners. They're looking for the biological products that the growers like. And of course once they've identified that, then I imagine they'll pile in with investments to help scale those businesses so that they can deliver volumes necessary to capture that wider addressable market. So, I don't think VCs are anti-grower-led innovation whatsoever. I think in some ways it de-risks their investments for them.

Drew Radford:

Just trying to clarify this a little bit further, but haven't field trials always been part of grower groups anyway?

Peter Wren-Hilton:

They have been, but very often we find that they're actually run by the product companies. And this isn't certainly a criticism of some of those big agribusinesses. I mean they certainly run field trials and they are robust and strong, but I think sometimes growers want to see, if I may say a more independent approach. And so, when they look at the results of field trials, they can say that these field trials have been effectively managed by growers and therefore there's potentially a greater sense of adoption, than there is if it's seen by being a proprietary product developed by one of those big global agribusinesses.

Drew Radford:

Just harking back there for a second, Peter, I was interested too with the collaboration that you noted, that you spend a lot of time in California, and they face common issues. Is that also an opportunity too, to work pretty much 12 months of the year because growing season there is dormant season in the Southern Hemisphere. Does that give that opportunity as well?

Peter Wren-Hilton:

Absolutely. So, what we're talking about here is what we call the counter-seasonal opportunity and that's absolutely valid. And it's something that we will be running through the global partner network. One of the challenges facing Californian growers is traditionally most of the research has only gone through one cropping season, depending on for the crop and the planting season. Whereas for instance, we're running trials in California and Australia for example, then we can leverage the Northern and Southern Hemisphere growing seasons, and so you get two seasons in a year rather than one. Well, that obviously enables you to accelerate research and development. Research potentially the commercialisation of a product. And given that the challenges facing farmers and growers are so intense and this covers biologicals, it covers water, it covers labour, that's in my view a real necessity. And so, I think it places New Zealand and Australia in a very good position versus California because of course we do offer that counter-seasonal opportunity.

Drew Radford:

Peter, you mentioned challenges there. What do you reckon the biggest challenges and opportunities start-ups face in the Victorian AgTech industry?

Peter Wren-Hilton:

Let's first of all talk about opportunity and be positive. I think there are some huge opportunities. I've mentioned three areas, overriding, I think, most of those is the whole issue of climate. We know we face a change in climate and that is impacting really farmers and growers across the board. And so, I think there is a convergence taking place at the moment between Agritech and climate-tech. And so, I think that certainly AgriTech companies where there is a strong focus on climate are very well-placed. I would also say generally speaking though, that start-ups need to understand their customer. All too often I look at it from the other side of the table, and farmers are being offered solutions for problems that they never knew they had. And so, I think there is that need for startups and it doesn't matter whether they're in Victoria or anywhere.

The biggest challenge at the moment, goes back to something we talked about a little bit before and that's funding. There are a number of really good startups and also scale-ups who are currently being asked by their investors to extend their runways. I don't see any great change in the next 12 months in that investment landscape. I've just got back from San Francisco from World Agritech and that was a very common theme there. Nobody really anticipates a major change in the market in 24. So, I would say to any startup looking for investment, look early and if you've got some investment, try and retain that runway as long as you can because I think that's one area where all startups will struggle over the next 12 to 18 months.

Drew Radford:

Peter, you mentioned biologicals is an area that you're working in and see huge opportunity there. Are there other notable trends or emerging technologies that you find particularly exciting in the AgTech space?

Peter Wren-Hilton:

It goes back to what I mentioned earlier, in terms of addressing the issues of labour, and that's automation and robotics. I mean there are some really good examples of Australian companies like Swarm Robotics and others who have developed great solutions. That is not a single issue. I think a lot of the focus in the past has been automation around actually picking fruit. The reality is that if you look at labour on most farms, and certainly if you looking at horticulture and crops, it's around weeding, it's around pruning, it's around maintaining the crops throughout the year, and not just that point of harvest. And so, I think there is a big opportunity for Australian startups working in that space. I would say that's one of the key opportunities at the moment, outside biologicals. And the other of course is water. We're talking here not just about maintaining water, we are talking about water quality. The water conversation in New Zealand is quite different from the water conversation in Australia. Australia, very often you don't have enough. Very often in New Zealand, we've got enough but we don't look after it very well. And so, we have unclean waterways and rivers, et cetera. So again, from a broader AgTech perspective, a lot of opportunity I think for startups to look at those areas.

Drew Radford:

Peter, I was listening to your podcast, the Grower Talks, and you asked the California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary, Karen Ross, what she thought was big on the AgTech horizon. And I was surprised to hear she focused on the need to communicate to tell the story of why AgTech is important. Is this about countering consumer pushback on science?

Peter Wren-Hilton:

I think there's possibly a little bit. It's something that she talks a lot about. And when she talks about education, I think it depends really whether she's talking about educating farmers and growers. And I suspect part of the context would've been that, and it's something that guess I've been very aware of over the last 10 years. I mean, the reality is that some farmers have been doing the same thing for generations and they don't necessarily always see the need to change.

And as in any tech space, you've got your first market movers, you've got your laggards, and I suspect that Secretary Ross was referring to the laggards, who can sometimes hold back on adopting new technology. My experience in California and certainly my experience in New Zealand, why I'm here, is that actually farmers are incredibly innovative and where they see opportunities to get a decent return on investment or scale more quickly in terms of yield, better quality produce, then they'll adapt really quite quickly. So, just in terms of that reference that Secretary Ross was making, I suspect it was more to the laggards than to the broader consumer market.

Drew Radford:

It's an interesting point though, isn't it really? Because at the end of the day, I think a good farmer is a good business person as well. That space for that sort of producer is closing daily.

Peter Wren-Hilton:

Absolutely. And there are generational changes also. I think younger farmers coming onto the paddock, are much more familiar with new technologies and that's part of their training. I think they are probably more willing to adapt than some of the more traditional farmers, if I can politely describe it as that. I mean one of the challenges that we've gotten, again, this is an Australia challenge, is the average age of a farmer, I think in Australia, is around 58, 59. And so, that brings in a whole new question in terms of succession and who will be the new farmers taking the role and place of those traditional farmers. One would like to think that that new generation will be more tech-savvy and more willing to adopt new technology.

Drew Radford:

I would argue also that it possibly puts even a greater pressure and need for AgTech to fill a vacating space that's going to occur in the next decade or two.

Peter Wren-Hilton:

Absolutely. And I think, again, just going back to Australia very specifically, I helped to establish the Australian New Zealand Agritech Council back in 2019. And it was only after that meeting in Auckland that the Australian Agritech Association began its growth. So, if you think about it, the Australian Agritech Association has only been in place for five years. And I know the first couple of years were quite a struggle to basically canvas the concept amongst AgTech companies that having an ecosystem was worthwhile. Now that's obviously picked up. When I look at what's happening in Victoria, with the investments that they're making into AgTech, and then the broader Australian market. When I look at AgriFutures and what's happening with GrowAG, there's far more opportunity now than there was only five years ago for AgTech companies to scale and grow. So, I think the landscape for AgTech companies in Victoria and Australia, is a lot better than it was compared to just a very short number of years ago.

Drew Radford:

Lastly, Peter, what are three tips you would give to Victorian AgTech startups?

Peter Wren-Hilton:

Well, I mentioned indirectly before, and that's know your customer. Make sure that what you are doing is something that customers actually want, as opposed to coming up with a new frilly widget that you think looks great but may not apply. So, I would spend a lot of time speaking to my customers, making sure that the service or product I was trying to provide was actually meeting a real unmet need. That's the first thing.

The other thing I'd say at this point in time, is resilience. Securing investment is not as easy as it might've been two or three years ago, and you do need to be resilient. So, where you can, what's your costs? What's your revenue? And really make sure you've got a very, very strong handle on that. The days when AgTech companies could fly premium economy and business, long since gone and so just be resilient.

And the third thing is make use of the resources that are available to you. The Victorian Government, as I said, make a lot of resource available, not just cash, but other resources. growAG, and I do sit on the growAG steering committee, if you have an opportunity, you can post that opportunity free of charge onto the growAG platform, and that might mean you're looking for investment, you're looking for commercial partners, you're looking for research partners. So, make full use of the free services that are available. They're available at federal and the state levels in Australia. And I would say to any start-up, really leverage those opportunities as much as you can.

Drew Radford:

Peter, there are some great suggestions and also you've given a wonderful global perspective in, what I would argue, is a very clear and concise language. For now though, Peter Wren-Hilton, CEO, and founder of Wharf42. Thank you so much for joining us for this AgTech Innovators podcast.

Peter Wren-Hilton:

It's been awesome to be with you. Very, very happy for taking part, and I look forward to listening to future podcasts on this channel.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to AgTech Innovators. For more episodes in this series, find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts.

We'd love to hear your feedback, so please leave a comment or rating and share this series with your friends and family. All information is accurate at the time of release.

Contact Agriculture Victoria, or your consultant before making any changes on farm.

This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria, authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne.