Faced with challenges such as labor availability and rising costs, farm groups and companies in the West have been making a big push in recent years toward automation of specialty crops.

One obstacle they’ve encountered is that there are few places for robotics startups to test their equipment or demonstrate it for growers.

Enter Reservoir Farms, a pair of planned on-farm robotics incubators set to begin operations in Salinas, Calif., and Merced, Calif., respectively, in early 2025. The farms are a nonprofit initiative headed up by the Reservoir, which builds tech incubators across California, and partners Western Growers, the University of California, Merced College, Hartnell College and venture capital firm HawkTower.

The incubators’ initial projects will focus on early-stage agricultural innovations in automation and robotics, including rovers and drones, that promise breakthrough solutions to problems faced by California farms, particularly in the organic sector.

“You’re a young company that’s trying to do a robot for something very specific like agave harvest,” said Danny Bernstein, CEO of the Reservoir and managing partner of HawkTower. “You need to test your product and you need to develop it. What would be ideal is to show up with a place with agave to test it on.

Related:Tech a labor-saving solution for organic growers

“That idea of bringing the development of robotics adjacent to the farm is something we have not been able to find in a cooperative sense – an incubator with 10 or 12 companies working together,” Bernstein told Farm Press. “Western Growers got very excited about this idea because they’re seeing a lack of new and upcoming robotics companies addressing challenges in agriculture.”

The initiative was unveiled during a press conference at the FIRA USA 2024 robotics conference Oct. 23 in Woodland, Calif. Bernstein said more details will be presented during the Organic Grower Summit, where he will participate in a panel discussion titled “Will ag tech make organic farms more profitable?”

Presented by Farm Progress and Western Growers, the summit will be held Dec. 4-5 at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa. Registration for the summit is open; for information, visit www.organicgrowersummit.com.

Farms looking to tech

The incubators, which will be veritable proving grounds for new products, come as farms are increasingly looking to precision technology and automation to save on labor costs. For instance, a recent study by Western Growers found that the use of robotics to remove weeds in leafy greens in the Salinas Valley cut labor costs by as much as 40%.

Related:Pest, weed control offers challenges in organic systems

Despite advancements, early-stage ag-tech projects lack critical ecosystem support, like connecting directly with growers, testing and validating their solutions, and accessing dedicated shop space and farmland, the partners said. These gaps hinder capital efficiency and the development of critical solutions that meet the agricultural sector’s needs, they said.

Many startup incubators are in urban settings, where “you’re not going to think about problems with open space … or water management,” Bernstein said, “or if you are, you’re not doing it in a way that’s informed.”

Unlike a for-profit venture that’s accountable to shareholders, the nonprofit Reservoir Farms is a broad-based collaboration between educational institutions, industry players and community groups. Supporting partners include Central Coast Small Business Development Center, Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action, Digital NEST, Farmhand Ventures, Merced County Farm Bureau, Milano Technical Group, Monterey Bay DART (Drone Automation and Robotics Technology), Monterey Bay Economic Partnership, Monterey County Farm Bureau, Tesserakt Ventures, and UC’s The VINE.

“As robotics and automation become more integral to California agriculture, it’s essential to have facilities like Reservoir Farms embedded within the farming community,” said Gabriel Youtsey, chief innovation officer for UC’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

At the two farms, participants will be able to lease testing fields and shop space without the burden of multi-year leases, giving them the flexibility needed to scale, the partners said. The incubators will also host R&D workshops, provide storage for equipment and provide pre-planted specialty crop fields for testing. The groups’ goal is to create a statewide network of testing and demonstration acres, said Walt Duflock, Western Growers’ senior vice president of innovation.

“You can think of it as having a FIRA USA 24-365, in multiple growing locations,” Duflock told Farm Press. “As excited as we are about FIRA and the Southwest Ag Summit, it’s hard for growers to give up a day or two to go to events. If we can put one in their back yard … that would be interesting to think about.”

While the Merced facility will be a mix between organic and conventional farming, the Salinas facility will be entirely devoted to organics, Bernstein said.

“We’re really thinking about the future of the American west,” he said, “about how we can prevent population migration, secure our food supply and make it possible to continue to farm in the American west.”

For more information, visit thersvr.org.