About

Celebrating its 11th year, the REAP Conference is a cornerstone of the UK’s agri-tech event calendar. By putting farmers at the heart of the discussion, REAP helps delegates navigate the demands of 21st-century agriculture by reframing challenges to inspire new ideas and identify innovative solutions.

With over a decade of experience, REAP has built a reputation for uniting the agri-tech ecosystem around a pressing, topical theme. It attracts researchers, innovators, government officials, agribusiness leaders and farmers from across the UK and beyond.

REAP Conference 2024: Theme

The Agri-Tech Balancing Act – Optimising One or Managing Many?

Global agriculture has evolved into a dual landscape of both vast scale and intricate detail, thanks to technology.

It is possible to manage vast swathes of land at scale, while also deploying innovations that permit precise, personalised management of individual crops and animals.

The tech is here already. Robotic dairies have made the husbandry of individual dairy cows a reality, and the rise of computer vision, AI and automation enables the differing needs of every plant to potentially be met.

Huge quantities of data about the performance of a piece of fruit, a single flower, or even a chicken can generate new insights to help optimise the way they are looked after. Their nutrition, water, inputs to help them combat pests and diseases….potentially everything that might not be perfect can be improved.

So how far can this go?

At what point do the benefits from bespoke management of individuals outweigh the additional costs of more general oversight of the wider crop, flock or herd? Where’s the tipping point at which potentially sub-optimal management of the population might be a better option than individually curated management plans for all?