Accelerating the use of technology to boost Australian agriculture

AgXelerate Program connects startups with beekeepers and producers, to fine-tune agritech solutions for key industry issues.

Innovative hive management technologies are being rolled out across apiaries and farms thanks to a program that fast-tracks the uptake of cutting-edge technologies in Australian agriculture.

AgriFutures Australia’s AgXelerate Program aims to enhance the capability and networks of agrifood tech and innovation startups in Australia and internationally. Ten startups were involved in the 2023 program, ranging from developers of artificial intelligence-powered tools to bioelectrics (modelled on lightning) to help grow plants.

“The AgXelerate Program finds solutions for the pain points in our levied and emerging industries,” AgriFutures evoke^AG. Manager Dallas Pearce said.

“We identified the key issues in each of our industries and had a great response from agritech developers who applied for the program. The startups were diverse and some already had a technology for a different industry that could be applied to agriculture.

“We started with a workshop with the managers of AgriFutures’ levied and emerging industry programs, and they facilitated connections to producers and industry who could assist the startups in the development of their technologies.

Monitoring hives remotely

One startup involved in the 2023 program, LB Agtech, provides remote beehive management, data collection and analytics to commercial beekeepers and the honey bee and pollination industry.

The Victorian company developed a technology called BeeSTAR, which gives beekeepers accurate insights on the health and condition of their hives, and provides a traceability solution by tracking the locations of hives in real time.

LB Agtech previously participated in AgriFutures Australia’s Bee Tech Challenge at the Australian Bee Congress, which identified ready-for-market solutions to support beekeepers. The startup subsequently applied for the 2023 AgXelerate Program to work directly with beekeepers to validate the technology.

“AgXelerate was a great program and the perfect opportunity for us to talk directly to industry and beekeepers to find out what their pain points are,” LB Agtech CEO/Director Simon Burt said.

“We worked closely with a diverse range of beekeepers – from those who had 100 hives to 6,000 hives – to develop an affordable solution they would want to use. They wanted a simple way to look at their apiaries or their businesses, so after speaking with them, we built our front-facing app with a traffic light approach, where red is ‘act’, yellow is ‘watch’ and green is ‘good to leave alone’.”

Simon said the ability for beekeepers to only target hives that need attention saves them time, money, fuel and labour, and reduces occupational health and safety risks. The use of technology also makes beekeeping more attractive to younger workers.

The technology is ready to be rolled out commercially, with additional trials taking place on Agriculture Victoria’s Smart Farm, as well as in New Zealand, the United States, South Africa, Belgium and Turkey. In South Australia, LB Agtech recently digitised an apiary supplying honey and pollination services by installing a sensor in all 1,008 beehives.

“We’re using the sensor information to collect and analyse the different data trends and how they relate to the temperature and humidity to determine what’s actually happening in the hive,” Simon explained.

LB Agtech attended the AgriFutures evokeAG. conference in 2023 and 2024, and plans to attend the annual general meetings of all beekeeping clubs in Australia to continue discussions with industry.

Next steps for AgXelerate

AgriFutures Australia is reviewing the performance of the AgXelerate Program, but the cohort can apply for a grant to conduct on-farm trials.

“We’ve had a lot of learnings from this program. If we do continue with AgXelerate, it will be a two-year program because we want to ensure we are providing solutions to industry issues,” Dallas said.

“I’d love to see all industries be open-minded towards technology and put their hands up to work with startups to ensure the technology they’re developing is providing value and real solutions rather than working in retrospect.”

How can LB Agtech help beekeepers?

LB Agtech developed BeeSTAR to authenticate the value of honey and monitor the location of hives in real time using a hive health matrix. It provides a solution for beekeepers, biosecurity authorities and the wider industry by ensuring the medicinal value and integrity of honey is not compromised at any stage of its distribution, digitising beekeeping records and providing geo-fencing alerts to prevent biosecurity breaches.