Today you’ll hear from three people: Hannah Johnson, Connie Bowen, and Danny Bernstein. Hannah is the Industry Lead for The VINE at  UC Ag and Natural Resources. Connie is the founding general partner at Farmhand Ventures who works with The VINE. Danny is CEO and managing partner at Reservoir, which includes Reservoir Ventures, and nonprofit incubators, Reservoir Farms & Labs, which is what he’ll be talking about today. 

I attended FIRA-USA this past October to try to better understand what’s happening in ag robotics and automation. What I didn’t expect was to see some really fascinating public-private partnership efforts that I think fill some real needs in agriculture innovation. But as luck would have it, that’s what happened, and so I wanted to put together this episode to highlight it. I think this type of work is critical. Running a farm, doing industry-leading research, growing a startup, all of these things are all-consuming tasks. It really is important to build the connective tissue to empower and fully enable new and lasting innovations in agtech. 

WOODLAND, Calif., (Oct. 23, 2024) —  At FIRA USA 2024, the Reservoir announced the first-ever on-farm robotics incubators, Reservoir Farms, set to open in the Central and Salinas Valleys in early 2025. This pioneering initiative significantly shifts how agricultural technology innovates through real-world testing environments, world-class resources, and critical industry partnerships.

A SWATH of prime Salinas Valley farmland near the intersection of Highway 68 and River Road will soon be abuzz —

The Reservoir, a nonprofit that builds tech incubators in California, is launching an on-farm robotics incubator called Reservoir Farms.

Reservoir Farms Incubators Open First in Salinas and Merced in 2025; Anchor Partners Include Western Growers, UC ANR, Merced College, Hartnell College.