Start With Growers: What Convening Participants Told Us

What’s one thing the Alliance should focus on next year to make the greatest impact for California agriculture?

We posed that question during the 2026 California AgTech Alliance Annual Convening. Attendees were invited to submit their response on a postcard to enter a raffle for a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. By the time the winner was drawn at closing, nearly every postcard had been completed.

The postcards were not a formal survey or a vote on the Alliance’s priorities. They offer a qualitative snapshot of what some convening participants believe deserves greater attention. Although the ideas varied, one theme appeared repeatedly: California’s agricultural innovation system should remain closely connected to the people doing the work.

Put growers and farmworkers at the center

The most frequent thread in the postcards concerned proximity: How closely are growers and farmworkers connected to the conversations in which agricultural problems and innovation priorities are defined?

Several participants asked the Alliance to create more opportunities for growers to identify problems, evaluate ideas and shape decisions. One response called for “getting more farmers in the room,” connecting grower participation with better knowledge exchange and stronger technology adoption. Others suggested including more farmers and farm-management companies on future panels or developing stronger links with growers to understand the on-farm issues that need to be solved.

Farmworkers were part of this conversation as well. One participant called for deeper connections with both farmers and farmworkers so that progress can be collective and technology “works with folks, not instead of.”

Make useful technology accessible to every farm

A second set of responses widened the question from whether a technology works to who can realistically use it. Participants described access as a combination of affordability, infrastructure, learning time and opportunities to try a tool under real operating conditions.

Several cards focused particularly on small, family, rural and socially disadvantaged farms. Participants asked for affordable, easy-to-use tools that reflect the time, financial and operational constraints of smaller farms. Their suggestions included low-cost, plug-and-play technologies; greater public investment; demonstration programs at UC sites; and distributed field trials that would allow products to be tested under a wider range of agricultural conditions.

The cards also showed that access involves more than purchase price. Reliable broadband remains foundational to many agricultural technologies, but connectivity is still uneven across rural California. Farmers must also be able to find relevant tools, understand how they work, try them under their own conditions and receive support when something goes wrong.

One response proposed working directly with small growers to identify a limited number of promising technologies, expand access to those tools and measure the results. Others called for programs designed specifically to support small and socially disadvantaged farms.

Create clearer paths through California’s innovation ecosystem

Other responses focused less on a missing resource than on the difficulty of seeing and reaching what already exists. Participants described a landscape of organizations, programs and investments that can be challenging to navigate.

Several responses proposed some form of statewide roadmap or regional resource map. These resources could help growers, entrepreneurs, researchers and service providers find funding, field sites, technical assistance, implementation support and potential partners.

Other participants suggested mapping stakeholders, investments and working lands; holding gatherings in different parts of California; and encouraging greater coordination and best-practice sharing among entrepreneur-support organizations.

Practical information was another recurring need. Participants expressed interest in guidance on regulatory developments affecting growers and technology companies, as well as clearer information about state and federal funding opportunities.

Connect innovation to California’s defining challenges

A final group of postcards moved from how the innovation system operates to the outcomes it should help California achieve. These responses named specific agricultural, environmental and economic challenges that participants want future work to address.

Water appeared through calls for better water management and greater attention to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Other responses asked for stronger connections between agricultural innovation and California’s sustainability goals, including climate resilience and pesticide reduction.

Participants also raised regional food systems, producer competitiveness, workforce development and the talent and leadership needed to move the industry forward.

From listening to action

The postcards do not establish a finalized roadmap. Their value is in making participants’ questions and priorities visible.

Across the responses, several possibilities come into view: listening more closely to growers and farmworkers, considering access throughout the innovation process, making existing resources easier to navigate and connecting new ideas with regional needs.

Continuing that work will require participation across the network. Growers and farmworkers can share the problems they need solved. Researchers and entrepreneurs can seek agricultural input earlier. Regional organizations can identify resources and testing opportunities. Partners can offer expertise, make introductions and help promising ideas reach farms with different needs and circumstances.

What connection, resource or change would make agricultural innovation more useful in your region? Share a farm need, offer a place to test an idea or make an introduction.

The postcards began the conversation. The next step is to keep listening and explore where those connections might lead.