A £50 million agri-tech investment package has been unveiled by the UK government to accelerate the rollout of cutting-edge technologies onto farms, with a clear focus on boosting productivity while reducing environmental impact.
Announced by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) in partnership with Innovate UK, the funding combines £8 million of public investment with around £40 million from private backers. The initiative will fast-track up to 12 breakthrough technologies, helping to bridge the long-standing gap between innovation and on-farm adoption.
The programme is designed to deliver practical tools that enable farmers to produce more food while cutting labour requirements, energy consumption and reliance on fertilisers. Technologies being supported span robotics, artificial intelligence and nature-based solutions, signalling a strong push towards smarter, more sustainable farming systems.
Among the innovations highlighted is a “living” biopesticide being developed by FA Bio, which uses beneficial fungi to protect crops such as wheat and oilseed rape from pests. Applied at planting, the solution could provide season-long protection while reducing the need for repeated chemical spraying.
Elsewhere, Rhizocore is advancing work on native fungal systems to improve tree establishment and survival rates, supporting forestry and agroforestry while accelerating carbon capture and aiding woodland recovery.
The investment forms part of the government’s wider Farming Innovation Programme and is being delivered through its Investor Partnerships model, which aims to attract private capital and de-risk early-stage agri-tech development. By co-investing alongside industry, the approach is intended to speed up the journey from concept to commercial deployment.
Farming Minister Dame Angela Eagle said the initiative is focused on ensuring that proven technologies reach farmers more quickly, helping to improve animal health, reduce costs and simplify day-to-day operations.
Industry bodies have broadly welcomed the move, with the National Farmers’ Union describing it as a timely boost for resilience, particularly as global pressures and geopolitical instability continue to impact food production systems.
The £50 million package reflects a broader structural shift within UK agriculture, where public funding is increasingly being used to unlock significantly larger levels of private investment and accelerate the adoption of innovation-led, high-efficiency farming models.
For the agri-tech sector, the message is clear: the focus is no longer just on developing new technologies, but on getting them into farmers’ hands—faster, at scale, and with measurable impact.
