{"slug": "govt-pledges-ps13m-funding-boost-to-bring-agri-tech-innovations-closer-to-farms", "title": "Govt pledges £13m funding boost to bring agri-tech innovations closer to farms", "summary": "The UK government has opened a £13m competition to help bring agricultural innovations from the lab to the farm, awarding grants of between £1m and £3m to high-potential projects. Environment secretary Dame Angela Eagle announced the funding, delivered with Innovate UK, which will support researchers, farmers, and agri-tech businesses developing products to improve farm productivity, resilience, and sustainability. Previous projects include AI-powered tomato-harvesting robots and a vaccine for pigs against Streptococcus suis.", "body_md": "The government has opened a new £13m competition to help bring agricultural innovations from the lab to the farm.\n\nUnveiled by environment secretary Dame Angela Eagle, the latest round of the [Farming Innovation Programme](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/13m-to-turn-cutting-edge-research-into-real-world-farming-solutions) will award grants of between £1m and £3m to a small number of high-potential projects.\n\nDelivered with Innovate UK, the funding will support researchers, farmers and agri-tech businesses developing products and services aimed at improving farm productivity, resilience and sustainability.\n\nPrevious projects backed by the programme include AI-powered robots designed to harvest tomatoes, hoverflies being used as a natural pest control for berry crops, and a vaccine to protect pigs against Streptococcus suis, a common bacterial infection.\n\nThe government said the projects demonstrate how agricultural innovation can address challenges including labour shortages, animal health, crop protection and sustainability.\n\n“This funding will take brilliant ideas off the drawing board and put them to the test on farms, turning [cutting-edge research into practical solutions](https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2026/05/tesco-global-agri-tech-search/) that farmers can use,” said environment secretary Dame Angela Eagle.\n\n“As set out in the Farming Roadmap, we’re backing the people turning ideas into action, helping farmers boost productivity, build resilience and meet the challenges of tomorrow.\n\nInnovate UK head of agrifood Chris Danks added: “Innovation is critical to supporting a productive, resilient and competitive farming sector.\n\nBy bringing together farmers, researchers and agri-tech businesses, this competition will help turn cutting-edge ideas into practical solutions that address the challenges facing agriculture today.\n\nWorking in partnership with Defra, Innovate UK is supporting the development and commercialisation of innovations that can drive growth, improve sustainability and strengthen UK food production for the future.”\n\nThe latest competition forms part of the wider Farming Innovation Programme, with [£123m being invested in agricultural innovation this yea](https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2026/08/govt-20m-farm-robots/)r following a £53m funding boost announced in June.\n\n[Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter](https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/newsletter-sign-up-retail-gazette?utm_source=Website&utm_medium=Article&utm_campaign=SignUp)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/govt-pledges-ps13m-funding-boost-to-bring-agri-tech-innovations-closer-to-farms", "canonical_source": "https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2026/09/govt-agri-tech-innovations/", "published_at": "2026-09-02 13:55:45+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-02 14:24:46.487541+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Dame Angela Eagle", "Innovate UK", "Defra", "Farming Innovation Programme"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/govt-pledges-ps13m-funding-boost-to-bring-agri-tech-innovations-closer-to-farms", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/govt-pledges-ps13m-funding-boost-to-bring-agri-tech-innovations-closer-to-farms.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/govt-pledges-ps13m-funding-boost-to-bring-agri-tech-innovations-closer-to-farms.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/govt-pledges-ps13m-funding-boost-to-bring-agri-tech-innovations-closer-to-farms.jsonld"}}