What does it take to achieve transformation in the agricultural sector? The 2025 Agri Transformation Lekgotla, hosted by Food For Mzansi, brought together farmers, policymakers, financiers, and industry leaders to explore actionable solutions to this challenge. Sponsored by Land Bank, Kagiso Trust, and Joburg Market, the event gave analysts from GreenCape a crucial platform to directly showcase agricultural technology (agtech) opportunities.
Mpho Mence, Sustainable Agriculture Analyst at GreenCape, and Gabriella Fugah, Communications Graduate Trainee at GreenCape, attended as part of the organisation’s work with the Anglo American Foundation (AAF). This partnership led to the creation of the Agtech Industry Brief, a publication that explores market opportunities for South African innovators and entrepreneurs. The Lekgotla provided a valuable platform to showcase these industry insights at GreenCape’s exhibition stand and engage directly with farmers and stakeholders about the role technology can play in breaking down barriers to transformation.
Drones: Unlocking a R1 billion opportunity in South African agriculture
Agtech is a growing market in South Africa as farmers seek to improve productivity and resilience to climate change, whilst reducing input costs across the agricultural value chain. For this event, a drone technology SMME offering precision spraying services, Aero Spray Agri, which has been supported by GreenCape, joined the event. Attendees were able to see firsthand how innovation can translate into practical solutions for productivity, sustainability, and cost savings on the ground.
Agricultural drones stand out as a promising investment opportunity, with a market size estimated at R1 billion for their use cases in:
- field monitoring and surveillance;
- precision spraying and spreading;
- farm security, livestock and wildlife monitoring;
- crop planting and pollination and,
- yield prediction and data collection.
GreenCape’s Sustainable Agriculture Sector Desk also actively engaged with the Western Cape agtech community at Cape Agritech Connect 2025, an event hosted by Stellenbosch Network in collaboration with LaunchLab and the Innovus Technology Transfer Office. Bringing together farmers, agri-startups, corporates, academia, and government, the forum fostered innovation and collaboration through expert panels, exhibitions, and networking.
For GreenCape, being part of these conversations with the support of AAF provides opportunities to connect with business, government, and academia to unlock the green economy, ensure fairer opportunities for all farmers, and scale innovations that can reshape the future of agriculture. For more information on various current market opportunities please go to the GreenAgri website or GreenCape for more insights.
