Sacramento Valley to host agtech robotics conference

The third annual FIRA USA robotics conference will take place in Woodland Oct. 22-24. Growers, startups and venture capitalists will have a chance to see a range of new agtech innovations on display and in operation at the Yolo County Fairgrounds.

The three-day event is hosted by the Western Growers Association (WGA), UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and the nonprofit association Global Organization for Agricultural Robotics.

The coalition selected Fresno, in the heart of the nation’s most productive agricultural region, to launch FIRA USA in 2022 and last year shifted to the nation’s salad bowl and berry powerhouse with the event in Salinas. This year conference organizers are touting a “home field advantage,” with UC Davis—one of the world’s top agricultural research universities—just minutes away. The location is also enticing for Silicon Valley investors, Bay Area startups and Sacramento policymakers to tour the technology and talk partnerships.

Choosing this location shines a global spotlight on state-owned fairgrounds as well, which drew immediate cheers from CDFA Secretary Karen Ross at a kick-off event on Tuesday.

Ben Palone, Western Growers

“One of the reasons this is so important is because of the many challenges that face agriculture at this time,” said Ross. “I tend to call them generational challenges. There’s a depth to it this time. They are keenly having impact in major family decisions, and agriculture is about families.”

She saluted Western Growers for changing the notion that specialty crops could not be automated when it created the Global Harvest Automation Initiative, which aims to accelerate automation by 50% within 10 years.

Adding to that sentiment, UC ANR Chief Innovation Officer Gabe Youtsey said “one of the most satisfying and rewarding partnerships” in his career has been his work with Walt Duflock, vice president of innovation at Western Growers. He described Duflock as “really driving the state of automation and robotics in agriculture forward in California.”

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For Duflock, the inspiration for FIRA USA came from his members, who stressed that labor costs and availability were their biggest problems. Now, California is feeling pressure to keep food production within its borders.

Duflock delivered sobering information on the rising threats from the south. He pointed to USDA Ag Census data showing the state has lost 4.6 million acres of agriculture in the last 25 years, and he estimated that number will grow to 8.3 million by 2052.

“Here’s an even scarier number,” he said. “We’re forecast to lose 58% of the farmers by 2052.”

He noted that Mexico and Peru have steadily gained acreage. Since the turn of the century, Peru has shot up from $465 million in agricultural exports to $10.5 billion in 2022. That has spurred Duflock to promote agtech opportunities.

Last year hundreds of high school students and FFA members “watched with awe” as autonomous tractors navigated a three-acre vegetable field grown in a dirt parking lot specifically for the conference, according to Ross. That work is already underway for this year’s conference. UC Davis students are turning a parking lot into a commercially viable field with lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes and more, said Ben Palone, who started in January as the new director of commercialization at WGA. He said the demonstration fields are an important draw for venture capital firms, growers, customers and startups.

“I can tell you from experience—and being involved with those companies—that deals are made at FIRA,” said Palone. “There is a massive, massive benefit to having this conference here at Yolo County—for the equipment companies and for the agriculture industry here locally.”

The regional economy was struggling not long ago, said Barry Broome, CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council. But it has risen to second place in job performance, with the UC system providing the “backbone of innovation.”

Growers and manufacturers from around the world will soon flock to Yolo County, and FIRA will come to a few of them, according to Youtsey. The organizational partners are experimenting with a pre-conference roadshow, traveling to Salinas and Fresno for “four days of intensive exploration with growers and food processors” the week prior to the event. In another effort to entice more of the agriculture community to take part, FIRA is offering growers free entry for all three days.

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