Farming for the Future: New Zealand’s AgriTech Innovators

BioLumic: Harnessing UV Light for Plant Growth

BioLumic is revolutionising agriculture with its innovative use of UV light technology to treat seeds and plants, resulting in reduced disease, enhanced growth, and increased yields.  

By leveraging a vast database of 2.5 billion light recipes, BioLumic applies tailored treatments to seeds and young plants, activating beneficial traits without genetic modification or chemical additives.

These treatments have significantly increased plant performance across 12 crops to date, including corn, soybeans, and rice – driving double-digit yield gains, improved quality, and enhanced immunity to pathogens.

BioLumic’s collaboration with AgriZero NZ, a public-private joint venture, aims to develop low-emission, high-productivity farm pastures, applying their technology to New Zealand’s most common forage pasture, ryegrass. This collaboration aims to increase fat content and reduce methane emissions from animals that consume it.

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Halter: Redefining Pasture Management with AI

Halter is transforming livestock management with its groundbreaking system that uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and geospatial modelling to create fence-free pastures.  

This allows farmers to monitor cow health, movement, and behaviour, optimising grass growth and improving animal welfare.

Halter’s technology recently expanded from dairy into the beef sector, freeing beef farmers from the manual task of moving cattle and enabling them to focus on planning and pasture management.  

The system also helps protect environmentally sensitive areas and allows calves to roam and ‘creep graze’ ahead of their mothers on fresh grass, with no competition for higher energy feed.  

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WayBeyond: Digital Agronomy for the Future

WayBeyond champions modern crop management by creating digital agronomy solutions for protected cultivation. Empowering low- to mid-tech enterprise growers and seed producers, WayBeyond enables better, timely crop management decisions to improve quality and yield outcomes. By producing better seeds and harvesting premium fruits and vegetables, WayBeyond aims to make a positive impact on people, farms, and the planet.  

WayBeyond's flagship crop management software, FarmRoad, provides growers with a clearer picture of their growing environments, plant health, and pest and disease outbreaks, enabling them to respond to daily farm challenges with certainty and improve growing practices.