The Reservoir, an on-farm innovation hub in Salinas, Calif., celebrated its groundbreaking Aug. 28. CEO Danny Bernstein sat down with The Packer to talk about the event and share insights about the Reservoir’s first agtech residents.
Bernstein says that 25 to 30 growers attended the event along with industry leaders, elected officials, community partners and investors.
“It just felt like this is a lively kind of aggregation point for agricultural technology a lively gathering, and it just felt like there was a buzz,” he says.
As part of the groundbreaking, Bernstein and The Reservoir team announced its first cohort of residents — Beagle Technology, BHF Robotics, Cropmind, FarmBlox, High Degree Machinery, and GeoVisual Analytics. Through The Reservoir, these companies will connect with growers and access its test facilities.
The hub is envisioned as an “Olympic Village of agtech.”
Bernstein says The Reservoir team selected this initial group due to the crops these startups work in, such as strawberries, leafy greens and vegetables. He says the team also looked for earlier-stage companies — those looking for refinement and learning.
“We care about how folks will fit in,” he says. “We want to make sure that they are collaborative. … It’s six companies that have signed up. I expect that we’ll be at 10 or 12 even by the end of the year. It’s a mix of robotics companies and precision tech, almost 50/50, so that’s kind of a neat thing as well.”
Bernstein says two of the four companies had a connection to Salinas already, and the other four companies are new to Salinas.
“If you’re building for specialty crops, being in Massachusetts … it doesn’t necessarily make sense,” he says. “It’s time to come to a Mediterranean climate. I think that we’re seeing that more and more from these companies, that they’re acknowledging that opportunity.”
The Reservoir also announced that Driscoll’s, Taylor Farm, Nutrien and Netafim have joined on as partners. This comes on the heels of the partnership news with John Deere, Naturipe Berry Growers and Tanimura & Antle. Bernstein says that having John Deere be willing to share the company’s GPS and vision technology with these startups is a huge move.
“Having John Deere deeply embedded in our community is extraordinary,” he says. “They have great technology, and they actually, genuinely want startups to adopt that technology in their products, not from, not from an extractive perspective, but to help them not reinvent the wheel.”
Bernstein, too, says participation from Netafim and Nutrien also signals strong support of this project.
“They’re doing it for the growers,” he says. “They’re doing it because they want this to be successful. … They are excited about the community benefits. They can meet growers through us. They can meet startups. They’re just excited to be there.”
And Bernstein also announced the support of Driscoll’s and Taylor farms from a grower-shipper perspective.
“They’ve helped steer our strategy in very nuanced ways, and that then we’re excited for that to continue,” he says.
Bernstein also shared plans to expand The Reservoir to additional sites across California, Arizona and other major growing regions. This winter, The Reservoir will run a pilot at the University of Arizona Experiment Station (the Yuma Agricultural Center) in Yuma.
“Yuma is something we’re super excited about,” he says.
