AgriNovus Indiana, a non-profit focused on growing Indiana’s agbioscience economy, launched a challenge today to inspire innovation that creates new revenue streams from current on-farm processes to increase efficiency and return on investment for producers’ operations.
In partnership with the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance, the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge is a seven-week accelerator that creates an opportunity for companies, entrepreneurs, students and innovators to compete for a $25,000 grand prize by developing technology to create and access new sources of on-farm profitability rooted in existing workflows.
“Farmers are entrepreneurs by definition,” said Mitch Frazier, president and CEO of AgriNovus. “The Producer-Led Innovation Challenge provides a unique opportunity for farmers and tech innovators to come together, identify a challenge and work together to create a solution that ultimately drives value on the farm.”
The 2023 Producer-Led Innovation Challenge will largely focus on digital innovation in the following areas:
- Trackability and traceability for premium products
- Accessing and leveraging sustainability and environmental practices
- Developing supply chains for byproduct and waste products
- Operational enhancement and risk mitigation
“The most successful innovations start with the problem you’re aiming to solve,” said Courtney Kingery, CEO of Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance. “New technologies that allow farmers to tap into additional revenue streams by monetizing their current practices is key for family-owned farms’ success allowing them to feed and fuel a growing world.”
The Producer-Led Innovation Challenge has enabled entrepreneurial companies to thrive. Most recently, the 2022 winner was acquired by Indiana-based agtech company Intelinair. In the announcement of the acquisition, Intelinair cited Aker Technologies’ victory in the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge. Since its launch, every company that has won the Challenge has either received follow-on funding or been acquired.
In addition to the $25,000 grand prize, a $4,000 from DIAL Ventures is available to the top participating student team from Purdue University. Companies, individuals and entrepreneurs who want to participate in the Challenge can access technical information, Challenge objectives, rules and register to participate here. The deadline to register is September 30 at 11:59 p.m.
