As we approach the June 26 closing date to enter the 2022 Agri T-Jam, we catch up with Natalie Smith, Tesco’s Head of Agriculture, and 2021 winner Crop Intellect, to find out what they’ve been busy doing over the past 9 months.
For start-ups thinking of entering this year’s Agri T-Jam, these are vital insider insights about the process, and the value of the opportunity to work with Tesco and its supply chain partners.
For the Tesco Agri T-Jam competition’s fifth year, what are you looking for in an early-stage innovator, and what difference can they make to your supply chain?
“Our ambition is to find new ideas and technologies that will help meet our purpose of serving our customers, communities and planet even better in the future, and so we are continuing to cast the net wide in terms of the agri technologies we are looking for. The T-Jam will make a positive difference to our supply chains by attracting exciting and disruptive agri-tech innovators with solutions to improve sustainability holistically i.e. reduce our supply chains environmental impact, improve productivity and efficiency, continue to improve animal health and welfare and help farmers tackle the biodiversity crisis.”
Why was Crop Intellect chosen as the winner last year?
“We were hugely impressed by Crop Intellect and its potential to transform agricultural supply chains with its R-Leaf technology. In this critical decade for driving action on climate change and restoring biodiversity, we all recognise that innovations such as the R-Leaf technology hold significant potential to secure a sustainable agricultural industry.”
Are you in touch with any of the other Agri T-Jam finalists?
“We have been keen to follow-up with finalists to offer mentoring, scope out further opportunities for trials, and encourage collaboration with our supply base. Our Sustainable Farming Groups continue to be an important point of contact for innovators seeking an opportunity for knowledge exchange. Alongside Crop Intellect, finalists Iceni Earth and Bio-F have also benefited from introductions to our Produce Ag Forum, made up of 26 of Tesco’s fresh produce suppliers. Finalists this year can also look forward to the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit, where they will have the opportunity to present in front of a senior audience and have full access to networking and insights at the following two-day event.”
You can find the full list and detail of the 2021 T-Jam finalists here.
Over to Apostolos Papadopoulos to give us a rundown of what you’ve been working on with Tesco since Crop Intellect won the Agri T-Jam competition in October 2021.
“The Crop Intellect team was very excited that R-Leaf technology won the Tesco Agri T-Jam competition. We received a lot of interest from a variety of sectors and in particular from the fresh produce industry. The main points where to understand the technology and how R-Leaf can green the supply chain supporting them in the journey to net-zero carbon farming. Most of the discussions resulted in setting up field trials to demonstrate the benefits of R-Leaf technology and specifically in crops we have not tested previously including herbs, root crops, vegetables and legumes. Further, we were approached by investors, distributors and multinationals willing to initiate collaborations to enable R-Leaf to become a globally adopted technology. R-Leaf captures NOx pollution from the atmosphere and convert it into plant feed in the form of nitrogen. This results in reduced requirements for synthetic N-fertiliser and increased yield. The ease of use and coinciding time of application with other foliar sprays, makes the R-Leaf technology easy to adopt in most farming systems. Farmers simply pour the liquid formulation of photocatalysts into any standard spraying equipment together with other inputs. R-Leaf supplies a small consistent amount of nitrogen to the crop on a daily basis.”
How has this exposure to the Tesco supply chain and network changed your business?
“Winning this prestige award has resulted in speeding up Crop Intellect’s growth on the front of preparing to receive investment, grow the team and making significant steps towards international commercialisation of the R-Leaf technology. We continue to work with several companies from Tesco’s supply chain to validate the efficacy of R-Leaf in new crops (other to cereals) and discuss in more detail how R-Leaf can be a critical part of their sustainability policy. Furthermore, we are working on understanding how the carbon credit generation potential of the technology can be leveraged to speed up market adoption and fuel the expansion into the international market.”
What’s your advice for start-ups who want to apply to the Agri T-Jam competition?
“Simply go for it! Going through the application process will certainly help any business develop their skill in explaining their solution, with the potential to win. As the priorities and policies of companies change, similarly we have seen Tesco’s Agri T-Jam previous winners having a diverse portfolio of solutions year on year, therefore be encouraged to explain clearly how your innovative solution may help to improve significantly operations in the supply chain in efficiency, sustainability or other aspects. For the same reason, applying again the following years is also encouraged.”
What’s next for Crop Intellect?
“Crop Intellect is currently preparing to raise capital to speed up the adoption of R-Leaf technology into the global market. We have set a couple of key milestones before we press the green button which are a few months away, however, we are discussing with investors now and we are open to being approached by interested parties. Although there is a clear benefit to the farmer from a yield increase point of view and a clear benefit to the human health and the environment by removal of atmospheric NOx, we are aware that the potential carbon credit generation of the technology is tremendous. We have recently validated our calculation of NOx removal using the Climate Forecast Impact tool confirming the impact of R-Leaf at 5.4 tons of CO2 equivalent being removed when used at 2lt/ha in a crop season (see email signature). This provides a net zero carbon benefit at 5:1 ratio to the negative impact of using synthetic N-fertiliser.”
Start-ups with innovative solutions that can help Tesco achieve net zero, protect and restore nature, improve crop yield and quality, animal health and welfare or operational efficiencies are invited to submit their solutions. Details and applications open until midnight Sunday June 26 at www.worldagritechinnovation.com/tesco-2022
