Giuseppe’s To the Point

The Next Phase of BioAgriculture

Combining nature and data to deliver measurable value directly to the farmer

By Giuseppe Natale, Founder Vedalia, Co-founder and Former CEO Valagro, Chair of Investor Forum-GBA

FROM BIOLOGICAL PROMISE TO PREDICTABLE PERFORMANCE: TECHNOLOGY’S REAL ROLE IN BIOAGRICULTURE

For most of my professional life, I have believed deeply in the power of science and technology to improve agriculture. Over the past four decades, I have seen our industry evolve dramatically. We have moved from relatively simple approaches to plant nutrition and crop protection toward a much deeper understanding of plant physiology, soil biology, microorganisms, and the complex interactions between plants and their environment.

Today, that evolution is accelerating. Artificial intelligence, genomics, metabolomics, high-throughput screening, advanced fermentation, sensors, satellite imagery, robotics and precision agriculture are giving us capabilities that would have been almost unimaginable only a generation ago. For BioAgriculture, this represents an extraordinary opportunity. But perhaps it is also time to ask a more demanding question: Are we using technology to create better agriculture, or are we sometimes simply creating more technology?

THE NEXT CHALLENGE IS NOT DISCOVERY

There is no shortage of innovation in BioAgriculture. Universities, start-ups and established companies are generating an impressive pipeline of new microorganisms, metabolites, peptides, biostimulants, biocontrol solutions and new approaches to plant nutrition. Technology has dramatically increased our ability to discover them. Al can help identify promising molecules and biological pathways.

Genomics can help us understand microbial functions that were previously invisible. High-throughput screening allows thousands of potential candidates to be evaluated at a speed that would once have been impossible. All of this matters.

But discovery is only the beginning. One of the biggest challenges for biological agriculture remains something much more practical: predictability. A biological solution that performs extremely well in a laboratory, greenhouse or selected field trial may behave differently when exposed to different soils, temperatures, water availability, crop varieties, farming practices or microbial environments. This variability is not necessarily a weakness of biologicals. It is part of biology itself.

FROM “DOES IT WORK?” TO “WHEN AND HOW DOES IT WORK?”

For many years, our industry has focused primarily on demonstrating that biological products work. The next stage must be more sophisticated. We need to understand where they work, when they work, why they work, and under which conditions they create the greatest value.

Imagine combining biological products with real-time information about soil conditions, plant physiology, weather, water availability, and crop development. Imagine using Al not simply to discover another biological molecule, but to predict where an existing biological solution will generate the highest response. Imagine moving from generalized recommendations toward increasingly precise biological prescriptions.

This is where digital agriculture and biological agriculture can converge. Sensors, satellite imagery, weather modelling, soil analytics and artificial intelligence can help us understand the environment in which biological products operate. Instead of treating biological variability as something we have to accept, technology can help us understand it, and increasingly manage it. That would represent a transformation. We would move from biological products toward biological systems.

TECHNOLOGY MUST SERVE THE FARMER

There is, however, another principle that I believe our industry should keep firmly in mind. Technology holds no value on its own. During periods of rapid innovation, industries can easily become fascinated by technological sophistication. Agriculture is no exception. A company may have impressive science, sophisticated algorithms, strong intellectual property or an exciting Al platform. All of these can be important assets. But none of them automatically creates agricultural value.

Ultimately, innovation must reach the field. For the farmer, the questions remain surprisingly simple: Does it increase yield? Does it improve quality? Does it reduce risk? Does it improve nutrient efficiency? Does it help crops tolerate stress? Does it reduce dependency on increasingly constrained inputs? And, ultimately, does it improve the economics of farming? If technology cannot eventually answer some of these questions positively, we should be careful about calling it agricultural transformation.

This is particularly important today. Farmers are being asked to manage an increasingly complex environment: climate volatility, regulatory pressure, higher input costs, labour constraints and growing expectations around sustainability. The last thing agriculture needs is technology that simply adds another layer of complexity. The best technologies will do the opposite. They will make complexity manageable.

MAKING SUSTAINABILITY SUSTAINABLE

There is another reason why this matters. For too long, sustainability has been presented to farmers primarily as an obligation: use fewer inputs, reduce emissions, protect biodiversity, and improve soil health. These objectives are essential. But sustainability will not scale globally if it depends only on regulation, subsidies or the goodwill of farmers. It must also make economic sense.

Technology can help close this gap. Precision agriculture can ensure that biological and conventional inputs are applied where they generate the greatest value. Better predictive tools can reduce unnecessary applications. Biological solutions can improve nutrient-use efficiency and crop resilience. Data can help farmers measure outcomes rather than simply follow prescriptions. The objective should not be technology for technology’s sake. The objective should be more output and resilience with fewer resources and lower environmental impact. That is where productivity and sustainability stop being competing objectives and start becoming part of the same strategy.

KEEPING OUR FEET ON THE GROUND

After more than forty years working in agricultural innovation, I remain convinced that science and technology can contribute enormously to a more prosperous and sustainable future. Perhaps, however, I am also more conscious today of their limitations. Technology does not automatically create progress. We decide which problems technology should solve, how innovation is deployed and who benefits from it.

This distinction becomes particularly important as agriculture faces the consequences of climate change, soil degradation, water scarcity and increasing pressure on natural resources. Simply adapting agriculture to progressively more difficult conditions cannot be our only ambition. We should aim higher. Agriculture has the potential not only to adapt to environmental challenges but to become an important part of the solution, improving resource efficiency, protecting soil, increasing carbon efficiency and producing more from every hectare while reducing its environmental footprint.

Biological agriculture has an important role to play in that transition. Technology can dramatically accelerate it. But we should remain disciplined about what success means. The number of algorithms developed, patents filed, microorganisms screened or start-ups created cannot be the ultimate measure of progress. The real measure will be what happens in the field.

BIOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY MUST CONVERGE

I do not believe the future of agriculture will be a competition between biological and technological approaches. Quite the opposite. The most exciting opportunity lies in their convergence. Biology gives us extraordinary mechanisms developed and refined by nature over millions of years. Technology gives us increasingly powerful tools to understand, optimize and deploy those mechanisms. Together, they can help us move from biological promise to predictable performance.

And perhaps that is the real meaning of Smart Agriculture. Not simply an agriculture with more sensors, more data or more artificial intelligence. But an agriculture that is better able to understand complexity and translate that understanding into better decisions. An agriculture that is more productive because it is more precise. More resilient because it understands biology better. And more sustainable because sustainability and economic performance increasingly reinforce each other.

It will be biological agriculture made more precise, predictable and scalable by technology and ultimately judged by the value it creates for farmers, society and the planet.

BioAg World Digest | Summer 2026