The UK government has unveiled a roughly £50m investment push aimed at getting advanced farm technologies out of the lab and into daily use. Farming Minister Angela Eagle said the package is intended to help farmers raise output while easing pressure on labour, energy, fertiliser and chemical use.

Backed by £8m in public money and about £40m from private investors, the programme is expected to support up to 12 tools spanning robotics, artificial intelligence and biological crop protection. According to industry reports, the initiative is being run through the Farming Innovation Programme with Innovate UK, using government funding to help unlock commercial backing for technologies judged ready to scale.

Among the projects named is FA Bio, which is working on a "living" biopesticide built around beneficial fungi to protect wheat and oilseed rape from pests. The company says the treatment, applied at planting, could provide season-long protection and reduce the need for repeated spraying. Rhizocore is also part of the funding round, with work focused on identifying native fungi that can help trees establish more successfully, supporting forestry, agroforestry and woodland recovery while potentially improving carbon capture.

The announcement also includes a separate £5m springboard round for 2026 to 2027, designed to help the next wave of high-potential agritech businesses scale. The government says that fresh capital is meant to draw in further private investment and strengthen a sector increasingly seen as central to food security, climate resilience and the long-term competitiveness of UK farming.