Ag Innovation Challenge: Meet the Four Teams Vying for the Top Prize

The final four teams in the 2026 Ag Innovation Challenge will go head-to-head in front of a live audience of Farm Bureau members, investors and industry representatives on Jan. 12 at the 2026 American Farm Bureau Convention in Anaheim, California.

Now in its 12th year, the Challenge, offered by AFBF in partnership with Farm Credit, is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to pitch their emerging ideas and businesses in the agricultural industry.

Final Four Challengers

The final four were selected from 10 semifinalist teams that participated in a virtual pitch first round. At the AFBF Convention, they have a chance to be the Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge Winner, which comes with a prize totaling $100,000, or the Challenge Runner-Up, which comes with a prize totaling $25,000.

Learn more below about the businesses that will compete in the live pitching session next month.

CryoBio

New York

CryoBio is developing biotech solutions to enhance food production at the farm level and minimize food waste throughout the supply chain, with an immediate focus on tackling one of agriculture's most overlooked threats: frost. CryoBio's plant- and food-safe formula, applied before the damage occurs, is inspired by organisms that survive freezing temperatures, reinforces natural defenses and protects yields when frost strikes. CryoBio's unique solution utilizes natural biomolecules that lower the freezing temperature of water both inside and outside crops by up to 14°F.

FarmSmarter.ai

Louisiana

FarmSmarter.ai is the world's first agricultural intelligence platform that unites in one place agricultural workflows, including field notes, GIS management, regulatory compliance, financial tracking and real-time agronomic insights. Powered by the company's proprietary Ag Intelligence Engine, Farmer AI, the platform's conversational assistant, can help growers and consultants increase yields, quickly find the information they need, streamline GIS field management, cut costly mistakes, save time and easily stay compliant with various regulations.

The platform fuses real-time data and insights from across the agricultural ecosystem, including the latest research from Extension services nationwide, all 16,000 EPA-approved pesticide and herbicide labels, GIS field boundaries, expert analysis of soil and tissue test reports, hyper-local weather data and farm-specific notes.

KiposTech

Pennsylvania

KiposTech is revolutionizing poultry farming with plasma-based air disinfection and AI-powered monitoring solutions that protect birds from airborne diseases, dust and ammonia. By creating healthier barns, KiposTech helps farmers improve biosecurity, boost productivity and strengthen food security.

KiposTech's flagship product, KiposPro, is a non-thermal plasma-based device that cleans barn air 24/7, neutralizing airborne pathogens, reducing ammonia and dust, and lowering the risk of disease outbreaks. They pair KiposPro with KiposEye, an integrated Internet of Things platform that monitors air quality parameters like ammonia, carbon dioxide, particulates and humidity. (Internet of Things is the networking capability that allows information to be sent to and received from objects and devices, such as fixtures and appliances, using the Internet.) Using AI models trained on farm environmental data, KiposEye provides real-time alerts and recommendations for ventilation and outbreak risk.

Vivid Machines

Washington

Vivid Machines delivers AI-powered farm intelligence, helping fruit growers cut labor costs and consistently hit yield and quality goals. The company's Vivid X-Vision system integrates into farm workflows, mounting onto existing equipment to capture plant-level data beneath the canopy as growers perform regular activities. Using computer vision and AI, it provides real-time actionable insights at the individual tree level, allowing growers to make data-driven decisions about labor, pruning, thinning and harvest timing. In addition, the system enables growers to perform precise per-tree chemical applications by integrating into variable rate sprayers to manage growth and prevent disease.

Vivid Machines is commercially available in apples and wine grapes and is building machine learning models for pear, cherries and other fruit crops.

Ag Innovation Challenge Supporters

Farm Bureau recognizes and supports these rural businesses with generous funding provided by sponsors Farm Credit, Bayer, John Deere, Farm Bureau Bank, Farm Bureau Financial Services and T-Mobile.

To learn more about the Challenge visit fb.org/challenge.