Western Growers puts $1.5M into Reservoir Farms, the robotics site nearest Watsonville

Western Growers is committing $1.5 million over three years to Reservoir Farms, the on-farm agtech robotics centre in Salinas. The money is $500,000 a year, on top of $250,000 already provided. It pays for three specific things: annual Western Growers demonstration days at Reservoir sites in Salinas, Wine Country and the Central Valley; sponsored residencies for selected agtech startups through the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology; and technology evaluation access for the association's Innovation Committee. The framing from both sides is about direction of travel rather than charity. Dave Puglia, Western Growers' president and chief executive, said members "will be in the driver's seat to prioritize companies with workable automation and efficiency solutions". Danny Bernstein, Reservoir's chief executive, described it as formalising "a direct line between the problems growers are facing and the technologies being built to solve them". For startups the practical offer is field testing on commercially grown acreage, shared R&D space, partner equipment including John Deere machinery, and grower feedback early enough to change the product. This is worth watching from Santa Cruz County because the funding tightens a channel that already runs through here. The Pajaro Valley's berry and vegetable growers face the same labour constraints the money is aimed at, and farm-ng builds agricultural robots in Watsonville. When growers get to nominate which problems get solved, proximity to the site where the solving happens stops being incidental. Reported by The Reservoir. Read the original: https://reservoir.co/western-growers-announces-1-5-million-three-year-partnership-with-reservoir-farms