Agritech

The Future of Agriculture

Agriculture is a sector often overlooked by graduates but it is likely to benefit in significant and exciting ways from the latest technological developments.

Sector Lead for Agritech, Helen Dundas, addresses the 4th Agricultural revolution and its place within the Data Driven Innovation (DDI):

With this revolution will come all sorts of innovations, including:

• Sensors for livestock, to allow farmers to track their temperature, pH and their stage of pregnancy.
• 'Smart' automated tractors which can respond to the quality of the soil and treat the surrounding crops in a bespoke way.
• More advanced gene editing techniques to produce the best yield in crops, poultry and livestock, while maintaining animal health and reducing need for antibiotics.

Precision Agriculture

The Direct Path to Agritech

Undergraduate

The Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security offers MSc(Hons) courses in Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Science, on top of industry work placements. This is intended to train the next generation of farmers, upskilling them to use data and technology effectively.

The Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security

Postgraduate

The Roslin Institute - Roslin is investing in a small number of specialised masters courses and PhD programmes to train our newest quantative geneticists. 

The Roslin Institute

The School of Geosciences also offers a range of Postgrad courses in agriculture and food security.

How do I get involved?

Companies 

Edinburgh is home to a number of SMEs focussing on the latest agricultural innovations. Here are jusy a few examples:

• Roslin Technologies - an agriculture and biotech startup, focusing on gene editing and animal science.
• Icerobotics - specialise in livestock behaviour. Producers of the app 'CowAlert', which allows users to track the behaviour of livestock.
• Scottish Bioenergy - producers of spirulina from seaweed. 

Search for other Agritech employers on MyCareerHub.

Skills 

Many of Agritech's future innovations will come from people with strong quantitive, rather than agricultural, backgrounds. These may include:

• Robotics
• Informatics
• Anyone from a more general quantative background i.e. Physics, Mathematics.

Graduates in these areas are in demand for their ability to bring a new technical background to local agriculture.

Take a look at Prospect's overview of the Environment and Agriculture sectors.