How AirAgri’s farm safety tool is bringing more Aussie farmers home

“We’re on a mission to bring Australian farmers home at the end of the day,” declares AirAgri Co-Founder Paul Diamond from his property in Victoria’s High Country.

“And we’re solving the inherent risks preventing that from happening.”

Paul and his brother James are third generation cattle and sheep producers who know all too well the risks that can befall farmers working in the middle of nowhere.

Accidents can happen in minutes or even seconds and the rate of workplace deaths are 54% higher in agriculture than the next industry.

“We had been testing and experimenting with different ways that technology could add value to the lives of farmers. We developed a farmer first agriculture platform and safety record keeping solution that assists them without intruding on their activities,” James said.

“We want to make sure farmers have access to the most important information to make more productive decisions, but most importantly, to make the safest decisions possible giving everyone the best chance at coming home every day.”

Transforming Farming with Automated Safety

AirAgri’s farm safety software tool is available as an app on mobile phones and computers, allowing farmers to build their own farm map or import an existing map.

As well as personal location tracking devices (PLD), AirAgri has also built emergency alerts into the software, which allows users to transmit their location during an emergency by using their mobile phone or in-house developed beacons which work beyond the cell tower.

The team of four currently assists more than 300 Australian properties – ranging from state government and corporate clients to family farming operations.

James admitted that transitioning from idea to development had been challenging, but a $50,000 grant from LaunchVic and Agriculture Victoria and pre-accelerator programs Rocket Seeder and Farmers2Founders had helped AirAgri to take the necessary steps towards the next phase of growth.

“The funding from LaunchVic and AgVic was used to ensure our wearable devices work in remote locations, so farmers can have confidence even when phones don’t work.”

“This included extensive R&D (research and development) in further automation and advancements in artificial intelligence to assist the behaviours of farmers to underpin the alarms.”

The support from the pre-accelerator programs was critical, James added.

“It enabled us to establish the clear challenge in workplace safety and more importantly how we manage and mitigate these risks,” he said.

“With respect to the grant this was critical for us to fund research, and product enhancements which then underpinned market validation.”

Protecting what’s important

As well as its headquarters in Gough’s Bay, Victoria, AirAgri also has an office in Toowoomba in Queensland.

James said the AirAgri founders feel very fortunate that they’ve been able to land on their feet thanks to the support of LaunchVic in order to do something purposeful.

“Both Paul and myself have been exposed to some of the stories of accidents in rural Australia,” he said.

“On a daily basis, we feel very privileged to be on the forefront of HSA (headspace analysis) technology and connectivity when it comes to mitigating the risks that can befall farmers working on their properties and change lives in rural Australia.”

Applications for the AgTech Grants Program are accepted on a rolling basis. For more information, visit: https://launchvic.org/agtech/