Agritech innovation: how IP is cultivating the farms of the future

The world’s population is projected to hit 9.7 billion by 2050, a 20% increase from today. That growth will demand 56% more food than we produced in 2013. Yet as cities expand to house this growing population, the land available for agriculture continues to shrink.

Traditionally, the response to increasing demand was to apply more fertilisers and pesticides. But this strategy is reaching its limits. Overuse of chemicals leads to soil degradation, water pollution, biodiversity loss, and health risks. The industry is now at a critical juncture: how to increase yield without increasing harm?

The answer lies in Agritech: the fusion of agriculture with advanced technology. Think sensors, drones, AI-powered data processing, robotics, and autonomous machinery. This fast-growing sector is not only reshaping farming but also becoming a hotbed for patent activity.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), international patent families in agritech have been growing steadily, reaching about 25,000 annually by 2021, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.9% between 2015 and 2021. The most notable growth has come from India (11.2%) and China (8.5%), reflecting a global race to innovate in this space.

Unsurprisingly, leading agricultural machinery manufacturers dominate filings. Deere (USA) tops the list with over 3,000 international patent families since 2004, followed by CNH Industrial (UK) with 2,500. Interestingly, tech giants are also entering the fray: Alphabet (2,000) and LG Electronics (1,800) are active players, especially in areas such as data, sensors, and automation.

Drilling down, several subfields within agritech are seeing explosive growth:

• Robotics and drones: ~2,900 families filed in 2022, +15% CAGR
• Mapping and imagery: ~4,700 families in 2022, +15% CAGR
• Precision agriculture: ~4,500 families, +12% CAGR
• Automation: ~700 families, +12% CAGR

These areas reflect rising interest in smart farming and internet of things (IoT) based solutions that can manage everything from soil monitoring to crop harvesting with minimal human input.

One standout trend is the rise of autonomous devices in precision agriculture, an area seeing a 10.4% CAGR since 2017. This includes autonomous tractors, robotic harvesters, and drone-based crop monitoring systems. The big three patent offices (USPTO, WIPO, and EPO) have become the primary battlegrounds for filings.

For major players, this tech is now central to their IP strategy. For instance, autonomous precision agriculture represents 50% of all international filings by Deere, and an astonishing 75% for Kubota.

Perhaps the most striking data point comes from a niche, but crucial, technology class: systems for controlling non-electric variables such as humidity, temperature, and chemical concentrations. This subclass has seen a blistering 37.6% CAGR between 2017 and 2021.

In farming, such systems are indispensable for automating irrigation, fertiliser application, and pesticide delivery with surgical precision. They represent not just efficiency, but sustainability, and may well become the IP crown jewels of the agritech sector.

For patent attorneys, this presents both opportunity and challenge. As agritech continues to blur the lines between mechanical engineering, electronics, artificial intelligence (AI), and environmental science, securing meaningful protection will require a multidisciplinary approach. Jurisdictional strategy will be key, particularly in fast-growing markets like China and India. And with big tech and traditional agri-machinery firms now vying for dominance, freedom-to-operate (FTO) analyses are becoming increasingly complex.

Agritech is no longer a niche. It’s a global innovation engine responding to one of humanity’s most pressing needs: how to feed more people with fewer resources. As technologies like robotics, autonomous systems, and sensor networks become core to farming, intellectual property will be the soil in which these innovations grow, or wither.

For those of us in the IP profession, the message is clear: farming may be traditional, but the future of agriculture is anything but.