Is the Legal Tech Market growing now?

Why is AgriTech so hard to read right now?

AgriTech is hard to judge right now because the market is expanding in some very practical farm-facing categories, while other parts are clearly under pressure.

There are a lot of positive signals.

In its 2026 Global AgriFoodTech Investment Report, AgFunder found that upstream agrifoodtech, meaning technologies closer to farms, food production, and biological systems, attracted about $9 billion in 2025, up 7% year over year, even as overall agrifoodtech funding was almost flat.

That tells us capital is moving toward the production side of the food system, not just disappearing. Recent rounds also back this up: Halter announced a $220 million Series E in March 2026 at a $2 billion valuation for virtual fencing, Ecorobotix disclosed $105 million of 2025 Series D capital for plant-by-plant spraying, and Beewise raised $50 million in 2025 for AI-managed beehives. These are not “nice-to-have” products. They target labor, chemical use, pasture management, and pollination risk.

But the negative side is just as real.

AgFunder also found that deal count fell 12% in 2025, and CropLife’s Q1 2026 AgTech venture roundup showed that AgTech VC was down 9% in capital and 8% in deal volume versus Q4 2025. Farm equipment is also weak: Deere’s fiscal 2026 outlook expects Production & Precision Agriculture sales to decline 5% to 10%, and CNH said in its 2025 results that it is preparing for lower agricultural equipment demand in 2026 before a possible 2027 recovery.

On top of that, USDA’s May 2026 farm-income forecast expects U.S. net farm income to fall in 2026, which limits farmers’ willingness to make big-ticket purchases.

The simplest way to frame it is this: AgriTech is not broadly booming, but it is not dying either.

If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest Legal Tech market report.

What are analysts saying about AgriTech growth?

Analysts still expect AgriTech to grow, but their forecasts are not measuring the same thing.

Broad “agritech” reports include software, sensors, biotechnology, drones, irrigation, automation, indoor farming, and sometimes supply-chain tools. The Business Research Company expects the global agritech market to reach $58.79 billion by 2030, growing at about 11.1% annually. Data Bridge puts the 2025 agritech market at $31.54 billion and forecasts a 13.4% CAGR through 2033. Those are broad definitions, so they naturally produce large market sizes.

Precision farming forecasts are narrower. MarketsandMarkets estimates precision farming at $11.38 billion in 2025 and $21.45 billion by 2032, a 9.5% CAGR. Fortune Business Insights is more conservative, putting precision agriculture at $12.86 billion in 2025, $13.65 billion in 2026, and a 6.6% CAGR through 2034. Smart agriculture sits between those definitions: Grand View Research estimates $28.5 billion in 2025 and a 14.6% CAGR through 2033.

Biologicals are one of the clearest growth pockets. Fortune Business Insights estimates agricultural biologicals at $17.16 billion in 2025 and $19.49 billion in 2026, with a 14.57% CAGR through 2034. MarketsandMarkets is close, forecasting agricultural biologicals from $18.44 billion in 2025 to $34.99 billion by 2030.

So the analyst consensus is positive, but not clean enough to settle the question.

The real answer has to come from what is happening on the ground.

So, this is what we will look at now, so we can give you a solid answer.

Are AgriTech startups still raising serious money?

AgriTech startups are still raising money, but investors are picking fewer winners.

The broad funding picture is not exciting. AgFunder’s 2026 investment report put global agrifoodtech funding at about $16.2 billion in 2025, down 3%, and showed deal count falling 12%. CropLife’s Q1 2026 AgTech venture roundup did not look like a rebound either: 163 AgTech startups raised $1.89 billion, but capital invested fell 9% and deal volume fell 8% versus Q4 2025. That means the market is not being flooded with new capital.

What matters is where the money is going. Halter’s March 2026 Series E is unusually large for AgTech and came with real adoption signals: more than 2,000 ranchers and farmers served, one million solar-powered collars sold, and 60,000 miles of virtual fencing built by U.S. ranchers since the company entered the country in 2024. Ecorobotix’s 2025 Series D also makes sense because its ARA spraying system operates in more than 20 countries and targets chemical savings with plant-by-plant precision.

The pattern is clear. Investors are not rewarding broad “future of farming” pitches the way they did in 2021. Instead, they are backing tools where the buyer can understand the payback: fewer labor hours, lower herbicide use, better pasture management, lower pollination risk, or better seed performance.

So funding is not booming, but the best AgriTech categories are still very fundable.

Are farmers actually able to spend on AgriTech right now?

Farmers can still spend on AgriTech, but they are forcing every purchase to justify itself.

The budget backdrop is weak.

USDA’s May 2026 forecast puts U.S. net farm income at $153.4 billion in 2026, down 0.7% from 2025 in nominal terms and lower in real terms. The American Farm Bureau also highlighted that farm income remains far below 2022 highs, with production expenses, debt, and weak commodity prices creating pressure. That’s big. A farmer under cash-flow stress does not buy technology because it sounds innovative but because it removes a cost or protects revenue.

Farmer sentiment shows the same caution. The Purdue/CME Ag Economy Barometer fell 23 points in January 2026, from 136 to 113, with both current conditions and future expectations weakening. That is not a direct AgriTech spending survey, but it is a strong signal that discretionary purchases face more scrutiny.

So the spending environment is not generous. That actually explains the market split. A virtual fencing tool that reduces labor can still sell. A sprayer that cuts chemical waste can still sell. A drone service that avoids manual spraying can still sell. But a large, expensive platform with a long payback period has a much harder job right now.

If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest Legal Tech market report.

Is the farm equipment cycle helping or hurting AgriTech?

The equipment cycle is hurting the market, especially for large hardware-heavy AgriTech.

To be honest, this is one of the strongest negative signals. Deere’s fiscal 2026 guidance expects Production & Precision Agriculture sales to fall 5% to 10%, and it expects U.S. and Canada large agriculture equipment demand to decline 15% to 20%. Deere’s recent quarter showed the same pressure: Production & Precision Agriculture sales fell 14%, while operating profit fell 39%.

CNH is telling the same story from another angle. Its 2025 results said full-year revenues declined 9% on lower industry equipment demand, and management is preparing for lower demand levels in 2026 before an expected recovery in 2027. That makes it hard for any AgriTech company tied to new tractor, combine, or high-ticket equipment sales.

But this does not kill AgriTech. It changes what grows.

Retrofit precision tools, software layers, machine upgrades, and service models become more attractive when farmers delay new equipment purchases.

At the end of the day, weak machinery demand is bad for hardware-heavy AgTech, but it can quietly help cheaper retrofit and optimization tools.

Is precision agriculture adoption still improving?

Precision agriculture is still moving forward, but the growth is shifting from basic GPS tools to more specific services.

The 2025 CropLife/Purdue Precision Adoption Survey is useful because it comes from 93 ag retailers and input suppliers, mostly in the Midwest. These are not hype investors but people selling services to growers. The survey shows mature adoption around older tools such as autoguidance, section controllers, yield monitors, imagery, and variable-rate applications. That means the base layer is already in place.

The more interesting signal is what dealers expect to add next: machine vision weed detection, variable-rate pesticide application, profit and cost mapping, robotics for soil sampling, scouting, and mechanical weeding. That is important because it shows precision ag is becoming more operational. It is less about collecting data and more about turning that data into a specific action.

This is a healthy growth signal. It actually looks like a maturing infrastructure layer where the next dollar goes into better decisions, fewer passes, lower inputs, and more precise field execution.

Is farm robotics finally becoming commercial?

Farm robotics is becoming commercial in narrow use cases, not as a full replacement for farm labor.

The strong examples are very specific.

Ecorobotix focuses on ultra-high-precision spraying, not a universal robot farmer. Halter automates animal movement and pasture management but not for all ranch operations. Bonsai Robotics raised $15 million in 2025 for orchard autonomy, where nut and fruit growers face labor-intensive operations. Nature Robots raised €4 million in March 2026 for autonomy software, and Agreenculture raised €6 million in December 2025 for autonomous farming technology.

The negative example is also useful.

Monarch Tractor’s reported 2026 collapse shows that autonomous electric tractors are still very hard to scale as a standalone hardware business. The issue is that autonomy has to work reliably, fit existing operations, and arrive at a price farmers can defend in a weak equipment cycle.

So it looks like robotics is growing, but only when the robot has a narrow job and a clear economic reason to exist.

If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest Legal Tech market report.

Are biologicals and gene-edited crops gaining momentum?

Biologicals and seed technology look like one of the strongest AgriTech growth pockets right now.

The forecast signal is strong: Fortune Business Insights expects agricultural biologicals to grow from roughly $17 billion to $19 billion between 2025 and 2026, and MarketsandMarkets forecasts a 13.7% CAGR through 2030. That is meaningful because biologicals are not a tiny concept market anymore, and they are now moving into crop nutrition, crop protection, seed treatment, and soil health.

Recent company activity supports the forecast. In 2025, ICL agreed to acquire Lavie Bio’s activity, including its microbiome and AI platform. Corteva invested in Symbiomics in June 2025 to support microbial biologicals. Corteva also formed a joint venture with Hexagon Bio in December 2025 around nature-inspired crop protection. These are not exactly random startup experiments. They show large input companies trying to own the next crop-input toolkit.

Seed technology adds another layer. Inari raised $144 million in January 2025, bringing cumulative equity funding above $720 million, and said the money supported commercialization progress. The EU’s new genomic techniques rules, adopted by the Council in April 2026, also make the regulatory direction more favorable for gene-edited crops. Taken together, this is one of the cleaner growth stories in AgriTech.

Are drones becoming a real farm service, not just a gadget?

Agricultural drones are becoming real in markets where service models and subsidies reduce the farmer’s upfront cost.

India is the clearest signal. Government schemes such as SMAM and NaMo Drone Didi are designed to push drones through farmers, FPOs, custom hiring centers, self-help groups, and training programs. Some schemes cover a large share of purchase cost, and several states are building drone spraying or custom hiring access rather than expecting every small farmer to buy a drone.

The service-model signal matters more than the hardware signal. In Andhra Pradesh, farmers have been able to book drone spraying services through an app or call center, almost like booking a cab. Punjab Agricultural University cut its drone pilot training course fee from ₹35,000 to ₹18,000, and recent reporting said applications jumped after the price cut. These are small signals, but they show an ecosystem forming around operators, training, and rental access.

That tells us the demand is real when drones are sold as a service, but not as a luxury service.

Are incumbents still launching AgriTech products?

Yes, actually incumbents are still launching and expanding AgriTech offers, which is one of the more reassuring signals.

At CES 2025, Deere revealed new autonomous machines, including second-generation autonomy kits using computer vision, AI, and cameras. The company is clearly still betting that autonomy belongs inside mainstream farm equipment, even while the large equipment cycle is weak.

AGCO is pushing the opposite but complementary strategy: retrofit. Its PTx precision agriculture portfolio combines Precision Planting, PTx Trimble, and other assets to support mixed-brand fleets. That is important because a farmer who is not buying a new tractor may still upgrade an existing machine.

BASF is expanding xarvio FIELD MANAGER for AgBusiness, including launches in Argentina and Brazil, with France and Germany planned after testing.

Yamaha also created Yamaha Agriculture through Robotics Plus and The Yield, targeting autonomous equipment and AI-powered digital systems for specialty crops. These are practical moves. Big companies are not just talking about digital agriculture; they are packaging it into channels farmers and advisors already use.

Are public agriculture companies showing current strength?

Public company signals are split, but they show exactly where AgriTech demand is stronger.

Corteva looks healthier than the equipment names. Its recent results showed strength in seed and crop protection portfolios, and its planned split into separate seed and crop-protection businesses suggests management wants sharper focus around technology-heavy input categories. Bayer is more complicated at the group level, but it is still using AI and agronomic data through partnerships and digital crop tools.

Nutrien also matters, even though it is not a pure AgriTech company. Retail networks like Nutrien are often how biologicals, agronomy services, crop inputs, and digital recommendations reach farmers. When those channels stay active, farm technology has a path to market.

Equipment companies are the drag, as pointed out above. Deere and CNH are not saying farmers have stopped investing in technology, but they are saying big machinery purchases remain under pressure.

Is vertical farming still part of the growth story?

Unfortunately, no: vertical farming is not helping the current AgriTech growth story. It is still in reset mode.

To be honest, the failure list is too large to ignore. Plenty filed for Chapter 11 in March 2025 after raising nearly $1 billion and reaching a prior valuation around $1.9 billion. AeroFarms’ Virginia operating entities moved to close the Ringgold facility in December 2025 and terminate 173 employees after a funding withdrawal. Bowery shut down after raising more than $700 million, and its assets continued moving through liquidation processes.

The problem is not that indoor farming has no technology value. Sensors, climate control, robotics, crop recipes, and greenhouse automation still matter. The pain point is around the venture-backed vertical farm model: high capex, high energy exposure, expensive operations, and weak willingness from consumers to pay enough premium for lettuce or herbs.

So we can separate the two. Controlled-environment technology can still grow inside greenhouses and specialty crops.

But vertical farming as a giant-capex startup category is not growing right now. It is cleaning up the last cycle’s overfunding.

If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest Legal Tech market report.

Is AgriTech M&A showing real demand?

AgriTech M&A is active, but it does not look like a hot exit market. It looks more like big companies buying the exact tools they need.

CropLife’s Q1 2026 venture roundup recorded eight AgTech exits, down from twelve in Q4 2025. That is a 33% sequential decline. AgTech also represented only about 1.1% of global venture-backed exits in that quarter, and the IPO window remained shut. So founders are not looking at a generous exit market.

But strategic buyers are still moving. Yamaha bought Robotics Plus and The Yield assets to build a precision agriculture arm. ICL moved for Lavie Bio’s microbiome and AI platform. Oishii acquired Tortuga AgTech to bring berry-harvesting robots closer to its farming operations. AGCO’s PTx strategy also shows how larger players are assembling precision capabilities across hardware, retrofit, and software.

Are regulations helping AgriTech right now?

Regulation is mostly helping the parts of AgriTech tied to productivity, conservation, drones, and gene editing.

The EU’s April 2026 new genomic techniques framework is a major signal for crop biotechnology. It is designed to support resilient and resource-efficient crops while keeping safety standards. That does not create immediate revenue, but it reduces a major barrier in a historically difficult region.

In the U.S., the House version of the 2026 Farm Bill would expand EQIP eligibility to include precision agriculture. That matters because cost-share programs can turn a technology purchase into a supported conservation practice. When policy money supports adoption, the vendor’s sales cycle gets easier.

India’s drone policies point in the same direction. Subsidies, custom hiring centers, and training programs reduce the upfront cost of drone adoption and make services more accessible to smallholders.

All things considered, regulation is not the main growth driver everywhere, but it is currently opening more doors than it closes.

Is AgriTech technical progress accelerating?

Technical progress is still accelerating, even if commercialization is uneven.

Patent data is one of the better signals here. The European Patent Office reported that digital agriculture patent filings have been rising 9.4% annually, about three times the average growth across all technologies. That suggests the invention pipeline is not slowing down, especially around sensing, automation, data, and field-level decision systems.

The product pipeline also supports this. Deere is moving autonomy kits into more machine categories. Ecorobotix is pushing plant-by-plant spraying software. BASF is adding more decision-support layers through xarvio. Research activity in computer vision, agricultural robotics, digital twins, and edge AI is also increasing, especially for disease detection, weed management, yield prediction, and low-connectivity farm environments.

The important nuance is that technical progress is ahead of market absorption. The science and engineering are not the bottleneck. The bottleneck is whether farmers can trust the product, afford the product, and fit it into the season without creating operational risk.

Are investors becoming more interested in AgriTech again?

Investor interest is returning only in a disciplined way.

The broad numbers do not show a strong rebound. Agrifoodtech funding was almost flat in 2025, CropLife’s Q1 2026 AgTech funding tracker showed a decline versus Q4 2025, and Crunchbase’s 2026 snapshot said agriculture startup funding was tracking flat to slightly lower. That is not a classic recovery.

But the capital that remains is smarter. As seen above, Halter’s adoption metrics, Ecorobotix’s country footprint, Beewise’s deployed BeeHomes, and Inari’s commercialization framing all point to a market where investors want proof, not just ambition. The same pattern appears in M&A: buyers want AI, automation, robotics, biological discovery, and specialty-crop capabilities they can actually integrate.

So investors are not broadly more excited. They are more focused. And for AgriTech, that may be a healthier setup than the last hype cycle.

So, is AgriTech growing right now?

AgriTech is growing right now, but only if we define the market correctly.

The practical farm-facing core is growing: precision agriculture, biologicals, gene-edited seed technology, drone services, virtual fencing, narrow robotics, AI agronomy, and retrofit equipment upgrades. These categories have recent funding, incumbent product launches, regulatory support, technical progress, and clearer farmer ROI.

The broad category is not cleanly growing. Vertical farming is still in reset. Large farm equipment is weak. VC deal count is falling. Farmers are cautious because income and sentiment are under pressure. That means the market is not expanding evenly.

So the most accurate answer is: mixed, with a positive tilt. AgriTech is not in a broad boom, but the useful parts are growing now. The market is becoming less speculative and more practical. Farmers and investors are saying the same thing in different ways: show me the payback, or I will wait.

If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest Legal Tech market report.

Question	Verdict	Comment
Do analysts expect AgriTech growth?	Yes	Forecasts mostly point to growth, but definitions vary widely across agritech, smart agriculture, precision farming, and biologicals.
Are startups raising serious money?	Mixed	Large rounds continue in virtual fencing, precision spraying, pollination, and seed tech, but deal count is down.
Can farmers spend on AgriTech now?	Mixed	Farmers still buy ROI-driven tools, but weaker income and sentiment limit discretionary purchases.
Is equipment demand helping?	No	Deere and CNH both point to weak large-ag machinery demand in 2026.
Is precision agriculture adoption improving?	Yes	Retailers are moving from basic GPS tools toward machine vision, pesticide VRT, robotics, and profit mapping.
Is farm robotics becoming commercial?	Mixed	Narrow robotics use cases are gaining funding and traction, but full-autonomy hardware remains risky.
Are biologicals gaining momentum?	Yes	Forecasts, acquisitions, Corteva partnerships, and gene-editing regulation all point to growth.
Are drones becoming real farm services?	Yes	India’s subsidies, training programs, and booking models show drones shifting toward service-based adoption.
Are incumbents launching AgriTech products?	Yes	Deere, AGCO, BASF, and Yamaha are still expanding autonomy, retrofit precision, software, and specialty-crop tools.
Are public companies showing strength?	Mixed	Seed, crop protection, and agronomy channels look better than equipment-heavy businesses.
Is vertical farming growing now?	No	Plenty, AeroFarms, and Bowery show continued pressure in capital-heavy indoor farming.
Is AgriTech M&A healthy?	Mixed	Strategic buyers are active, but exits are fewer and the IPO window remains shut.
Are regulations helping adoption?	Yes	EU gene-editing rules, U.S. precision-ag support, and India drone subsidies are supportive.
Is technical progress accelerating?	Yes	Patent growth, machine vision, autonomy kits, spraying AI, and edge AI show strong invention momentum.
Are investors more interested again?	Mixed	Investors are not broadly bullish, but they are backing practical, measurable, farm-ROI categories.

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