Challenge for new AG Technology draws two winners

A worldwide search for the most innovative ideas in AG tech ended in Salinas Tuesday.

Four competitors faced off for a chance to win thousands in investment dollars to further their ideas.

It was called the Radicle Automation Challenge. The finalists each came up with technology to help farms run more efficiently and relieve the AG labor shortage.

“We are getting fewer and fewer people from foreign countries including Mexico who want to come to the United States,” said Tom Nassif, CEO of Western Growers, “Because of the immigration policies we have and the fact that their economies are doing better so they’d rather stay in their own countries where they have families and they speak their own language.”

It’s part of the reason for a major push towards tech and automation in the industry.

Giving creative entrepreneurs a chance at $250,000 of investment into their idea.

“We had four amazing companies come out today, one of them all the way from Israel an amazing cross – section of companies,” Kirk Haney, CEO and managing partner of Radicle Growth.

The finalist brought ideas ranging from a robot that follows pickers, to underground sensors that monitor soil and water management. Ideas so good, the judges chose two winners.

One of the winners, “Ganaz” offered tech that will help farms and farmworkers stay connected through an app on their smartphones.

“[I] talked with thousands of farm workers and growers and retailers and brands and realized that now that everyone carries around a cellphone or a smartphone there’s a way that we can connect all of those parties in a way that everyone benefits,” said Hannah Freeman, Ganaz CEO.

The other winner, GroGuru, had the underground sensor idea.

Organizers say the benefits of this challenge will be seen here on the Central Coast.

“We are sourcing technologies from all over the world and then bringing them back here into the states and into Salinas specifically,” Haney said.

Ganaz plans to use the investment to hire and engineering team to help improve their product.