Agritech
Accelerating innovation, automation and productivity across UK agriculture
The UK agriculture sector is facing unprecedented pressures: labour shortages, climate change, rising input costs, and growing expectations around sustainability and food security. At MTC, we help agritech innovators overcome these challenges by translating ideas into real‑world, commercially viable solutions.
Drawing on world‑leading expertise from manufacturing, robotics, digital engineering and cross‑sector translational research, we partner with growers, technology developers, investors and government to accelerate the development and adoption of agritech at scale.
Our expertise in Agritech
- Leader in translational research
- Cross-sector technology transfer
- Independent convener
- Developing pre‑market technologies
- Scaling up for commercialisation
Leader in translational research
MTC specialises in taking concepts from academia and adjacent industrial sectors, including aerospace, construction, automotive and energy, and developing them into robust agricultural technologies. We help transform promising ideas into deployable solutions that improve efficiency, reliability and yield across farms and horticultural environments.
How we support the Agritech sector
Automation & robotics
We design and integrate autonomous and semi‑autonomous systems that support harvesting, packhouse operations, crop care and other repetitive or labour‑intensive tasks. This includes robotic solutions for soft and top‑fruit harvesting, automated inspection and grading systems, and autonomous mobile platforms for in‑field operations.
By leveraging our cross‑cutting Design for ‘X’ capabilities, we deliver cost‑effective, robust and scalable solutions tailored to demanding agricultural settings, helping reduce reliance on seasonal labour and enhancing consistency, yield and throughput.
Digitalisation & data
We help agritech organisations unlock the full value of their data to enhance productivity and support better decision‑making. Our capabilities span precision farming sensors and integrated data systems, AI‑driven crop monitoring and yield prediction, and data capture and processing tools tailored to both SMEs and large agrifood manufacturers. These digital approaches enable more informed, efficient and resilient operations across the supply chain.
Supply chain development
We strengthen the UK agritech supply chain by connecting technology providers, systems integrators, component manufacturers, growers and end users to create a more coordinated and commercially viable ecosystem. By building these relationships and supporting end‑to‑end collaboration, we help ensure that innovative technologies can be manufactured at scale, delivered cost‑effectively and adopted more widely across the agricultural sector.
SME scale-up support
Agritech SMEs often face challenges when moving from prototype to market, particularly around industrialisation and investment readiness. The MTC helps bridge this gap by providing engineering support to de‑risk technology development, offering guidance to improve investor readiness, and applying productisation and manufacturability expertise to ensure solutions can scale. We also provide companies with the opportunity to use our testbeds and industrial facilities, supporting them as they validate and refine their technologies.
Your journey with MTC
Collaborative Projects
We deliver technology development projects ranging from automated harvesting to inspection technologies, working with both emerging innovators and major UK food & farming brands.
Sector Development & Thought Leadership
MTC hosts networking sessions, skills roundtables, and innovation events to bring together growers, policymakers, funders and technologists. These activities help shape the national agritech agenda and strengthen cross-sector collaboration.
Strategic Partnerships
Our strong relationships with the UK Agri-Tech Centre, Innovate UK and DEFRA allow us to align with national priorities and accelerate the development of technologies that support food security and productivity.
Challenges we are addressing
Drawing from extensive sector engagement, MTC understands the real‑world challenges facing UK agriculture, and these insights, combined with our industrial capabilities, drive our mission to develop automation and digital solutions that are low‑cost, scalable, robust and ready for commercial use:
- Labour shortages and reduced access to seasonal workers
- High costs and risk of adopting unproven technologies
- Fragmented and competitive funding landscape
- Limited scale-up expertise in technology-led SMEs
- Growing pressures from climate change and food security
DEFRA‑backed Agritech acceleration programmes
Through major national programmes backed by DEFRA and Innovate UK, the MTC is helping accelerate the development, industrialisation and adoption of cutting‑edge agritech solutions that strengthen UK food security and productivity. As a trusted delivery partner, we support early‑stage and scaling businesses to overcome industrialisation challenges, increase investment readiness and bring automation and robotics technologies to market faster.
As part of the government‑backed AgriScale pilot, the MTC is working with companies including UPP and S&A Produce to bridge the gap between prototype and commercial deployment. Delivered in partnership with Innovate UK, DEFRA, WMG and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, the programme is backed by £500k of Innovate UK funding. Running until March 2026, AgriScale is helping drive forward technologies that enhance productivity and improve UK food security.
This Scale‑Up pilot focuses on accelerating the adoption of automation and robotics in agriculture and horticulture. The initiative supports developing innovative technologies, increases technology readiness levels, demonstrates feasibility at an industrial scale, and tackles labour challenges across soft fruit, top fruit and horticulture. Together, these programmes strengthen the UK agritech ecosystem by helping ambitious innovators commercialise solutions that boost resilience, efficiency and long‑term food security.
Why partner with the MTC?
MTC brings together deep industrial expertise, advanced engineering capability and a proven track record in technology adoption to accelerate the development and deployment of agritech solutions. Our cross‑sector experience allows us to transfer proven manufacturing technologies into agriculture, helping organisations overcome long‑standing challenges around automation, robotics, digitalisation and scale‑up. With state‑of‑the‑art facilities, highly skilled engineers and a commitment to de‑risking complex innovation, we enable businesses to develop reliable, commercially viable technologies at pace. As a trusted, independent organisation, we convene diverse partners across government, industry and academia, grounded in a strong understanding of real farming environments and end‑user needs.
Driven by our mission to increase UK food security, maximise yield, minimise waste and support a thriving agricultural ecosystem, we work with growers, technology developers, investors, policymakers and agrifood manufacturers to design, develop and scale the agritech solutions the UK urgently needs.
