Last year alone there were 12 fatal farm workplace accidents in Australia – half of the country’s total workplace deaths.

Farm safety is a critical problem James Diamond believes he is closer to helping solve after completing the Agtech and Logistic Hub’s and AgriBusiness Connect’s GRDC GroundUp program.

Mr Diamond and his brother Paul are the founders of AirAgri, a technology company developing digital tools to protect farmers across the country.

These tools include an emergency alert system that allows the user to transmit their location in an emergency and a tracking device that provides coordinates when something goes wrong.

AirAgri has also developed active farm safety software to assist with safety compliance, and digital farm mapping to help farmers and producers plan, record and present critical information around safety.

“Everyone is aware of the risks that are associated with farming,” said Mr Diamond.

“Our technology is designed to fundamentally reduce the risks across agriculture through a use of cloud-based technologies and iOT sensors, which ultimately removes the anxiety for farming families so if something does go wrong, we know where it’s gone wrong, and we can get to it as soon as possible.”

Mr Diamond said he joined the GRDC Ground-Up program to ensure AirAgri’s solutions had groundings across the entire agriculture industry.

The 12-week accelerator helps companies seeking support and guidance in go-to-market, commercialisation and investment. Through GroundUp, the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) invests exclusively in innovative start-ups that have the potential to benefit Australian grain growers.

Mr Diamond said GroundUp had helped him understand risks and growth areas for his company, such as commercial opportunities and the importance of having the right legal set-up, as well as providing a broader picture of the agriculture sector.

“Ag is so different – every part of Australia is so different,” he said. “Safety is a common denominator in that, but how safety and how risks occur and how they evolve changes based on every location, so the program for us has been incredible to round out our understanding and crystallise our solution.”

Mr Diamond said GroundUp had helped crystallise AirAgri’s focus on farm safety and the risk factors in agriculture, including mental health.

And, after completing the program, Mr Diamond and his brother Paul, who is the company’s CEO, have clear objectives for the remainder of 2023.

“We plan on moving from roughly 200-odd properties on the software now to somewhere in the vicinity of 4000 properties by the end of 2023,” Mr Diamond said.

“We are looking for any type of partnership and industry engagement that helps us towards that objective … for us it is about rolling our technology out and getting more boots on the ground.”

The connections made through GroundUp will help AirAgri achieve this objective.

“Hands down, the best part of the accelerator for us has been the people, the connections and really immersing ourselves inside an industry that we were aware of, but now have a deeper, much deeper understanding of,” Mr Diamond said.