Irish AgTech company MagGrow has won the International Innovation Award at the 2020 Fieldays Innovations, announced by the New Zealand Minister of Agriculture and Minister for Biosecurity, Food Safety, and Rural Communities, the Hon Damien O’Connor yesterday.
MagGrow has developed a patented, proprietary technology that significantly reduces waste associated with conventional pesticide spray applications, delivering your important plant protection products where they matter the most.
The Judging Panel of the International Innovation Award said MagGrow “impressed us with strong science backing an innovative solution that reduces chemical and water usage whilst improving efficacy in spraying applications.
We particularly appreciated the deep understanding of both science and farming applied in an innovation that can improve both environmental and commercial outcomes globally.
“The MagGrow team demonstrated clear understanding of both the problem to be solved and the business model to see it applied at scale. They are a worthy winner of the International Innovation Award and their solutions will bring real value to New Zealand farmers”, concluded the Judges.
MagGrow is a technology and IP company and therefore science is fundamental to delivering their world-class precision agricultural solution to growers everywhere. Farmers using the system can improve their crop coverage by 20%+ and reduce drift by up to 70%. It can also reduce their water usage by up to 50 percent and extend their spray windows.
Farmers typically see a return on investment of around one year or less just on chemical savings alone as well as healthier and less diseased crops due to the higher crop coverage. The increased coverage also supports a reduction in labour and fuel requirements.
A key selling point for farmers is the fact that there is virtually no maintenance with no moving parts, cables, electrical wires, or power supply.
MagGrow is committed to progressive research and development and has partnered with Trinity College, Dublin around pure research through their Science Foundation Ireland’s supported AMBER (Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research) facility.
They also have Industrial Engineering and Research and Crop Science facilities in the UK.
MagGrow was chosen as a Trimble select partner for agriculture. The global partnership has allowed MagGrow to accelerate its global expansion through Trimble’s international network.
Gary Wickham, CEO MagGrow said, “Fieldays Innovation Awards is recognised as one of the premier agricultural award events in the world, and we are truly delighted to have won. It is a great testimony to the dedication of the MagGrow team in the development of our ground-breaking technology that has significant transformational benefits.
We see this as a fantastic opportunity to connect with potential customers, investors, commercial and local research partners. It also provides MagGrow a fantastic platform to reach out to a wider audience through the various media channels.
He added, “New Zealand was always on our radar. New Zealand’s international reputation as a leader in the Agritech sector is well established.
In addition, the country is home to world leading agricultural research centres and universities. The country’s appetite for new technology that supports sustainable farming make it an ideal market for MagGrow’s innovative technology.
Locally Enterprise Ireland is doing a fantastic job guiding us on market entry strategy especially on market research, company set up, networking, customer access, and local funding supports.”
Niall Casey, Enterprise Ireland Market Advisor Agribusiness in New Zealand added: “MagGrow is one of the most exciting agritech companies we have seen emerge in the last few years from Ireland, and we are delighted to have them here.
The strong advantages it offers farmers has been very well received in New Zealand and we know that their product will help local farmers solve very big problems like diseased crops, water usage, labour requirements and the cost of chemicals in a simple way”.
MagGrow is distributed by Trimble dealers, other dealers and large growers directly in New Zealand.
