Forbes Ag Summit marries Salinas and Silicon Valleys

On Thursday, Salinas was in the business spotlight. Hundreds of people in the agricultural and technological fields converged in Oldtown for the Forbes Ag Summit. They looked at ways to deal with a growing food demand while being much more efficient. Forbes understands marrying the Salinas and Silicon Valleys could bring ag innovation to places we’ve never seen before.

“Agriculture is a very technologically savvy space and it’s a very data hungry space,” said Ernest Earon, founder and CTO of Precisionhawk.

Big problems create big opportunities. That’s good news for entrepreneurs like Earon. He works with farmers to identify potential problems, then launches an aircraft that can give them real time answers.

“It’ll automatically count every single plant in the field,” Earon said. “So they can say, “In that back corner, I need to replant because I missed a whole bunch of area there.””

Because in this multi-billion dollar business, time is money.

“If you’re a potato farmer and you had potato blight,” Earon explains, “In a week, it’s too late because in three days it destroyed the crop. You need to know right then.”

He’s not the only start up looking for a jump start. Blue River Technology is hoping to get the wheels turning on driverless tractors.

A growing population is driving this technology. Estimates show the world’s population will grow to 10 billion by 2050. We need to grow 70 percent more food to keep up. Also having to keep up are companies that have been around for generations, now having to generate new ideas.

“We are very much looking at biologicals,” Neal Gutterson with DuPont said. “Microbes that we can apply to seeds or into the soil to help the crop grow better. So we know that lots of microbes exist in the soil we’re trying to figure out which ones are most beneficial for plants.”

It’s a very exciting time for Western Growers, who is looking to expand here in the coming months.

“We’re extremely excited about opening our Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology which is right in the Taylor building,” Tom Nassif said, president and CEO for Western Growers.

The summit has really put Salinas in the spotlight. According to City Manager Ray Corpuz, he predicts we’ll see an immediate economic boost now, with a trickle down effect for years to come.