Specialist
Former SVP at The Climate Corp
Agenda
- Farmers Business Network strategic update
- Farmer adoption of vertical-specific tech innovation
- Agtech competitive landscape
- Farmer-to-farmer network outlook
Questions
1.
How has technology adoption within US farming evolved over the years? What were the challenges associated with this?
2.
Which major agricultural tech players lead on innovation?
3.
What trends were you monitoring pre-coronavirus? How did coronavirus-driven demand impact farmers and their willingness to try new technologies?
4.
Could you give an overview of FBN [Farmers Business Network] and its categories and offerings?
5.
Could you define farmer-to-farmer networks? You mentioned you can access other farmers’ performance data. How granular is that data? How do you think FBN secured this data feed from these farmers, given that every farmer has their own little touch to how they produce their products and they may perceive their information as proprietary? How do you think FBN overcame that hurdle?
6.
What are your thoughts on FBN’s key marketplace offerings, such as FBN Pharmacy and FBN Feed, targeted at dairy and meat farmers?
7.
Do you expect farmers to become wary as FBN expands its offerings, given the supply chain control it continues to possess over some farmers’ networks? Would some farmers perceive it as a conflict of interest?
8.
Does FBN dominate the farmer-to-farmer network market share-wise, or are new entrants or other firms offering similar products?
9.
Would you say there are other retailers who may be interested in improving their own products, or are there other ways for FBN to capitalise on the data it has aggregated from so many farmers?
10.
What are your thoughts on FBN potentially going public? Do you have any potential valuation ranges? Everyone seems to be going public via SPAC [special purpose acquisition company] these days, such as AppHarvest recently. What are your thoughts on the capital market and how that may or may not benefit agricultural tech companies?
11.
FBN is talking about providing funding and data aggregation and so many other tools for farmers. Do you think there is a dilution risk? Could it be in too many different markets? Is there value in focusing on core products, or do you think the name of the game is to diversify and scale?
12.
How has agricultural production of soy beans and wheat transformed from an industrial way of farming to being more nimble and sustainable? Where do you think the industry is headed on that front?
13.
What are your thoughts on the traceability of inputs and how it relates to seeds and genetics? Could you talk about consumer demand? Consumers want clean labelling. Are you aware of the effect of modified seeds that are used to grow some of the soy and products that ultimately end up in our bodies and the demand for transparency on that in the front end of the supply chain all the way to end consumer?
14.
Is there any one goal that you think is most important around ESG issues that you believe agricultural tech can innovate and provide solutions for?
15.
How many of the new technologies are offered to farmers? Have they been sufficiently proven or are we still in a trial-and-error phase? Could you outline that whole ecosystem of trying, failing, trying again and continuing to innovate?
16.
Could you talk about how running experiments in controlled environmental farming may give insights into what may not be picked up due to the constantly changing environment? How has the industry learned from a controlled environment and applied some of those practices and tried to replicate it on a large scale in an uncontrolled environment?
17.
What should investors focus on when it comes to FBN or agricultural tech in general? What do you think is the next big thing?
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