While agtech often celebrates breakthrough technologies that can slash costs for farmers, what if the real value of innovation lies somewhere else entirely?

In this episode, Mark Trzaskoma joins Dr Madeline Mitchell to explore what agtech adoption actually looks like on the ground at Battunga Orchards, a 180-hectare orchard operating across three sites in Victoria.

From mechanised harvest platforms to canopy redesign and data collection tools, each decision at Battunga is guided by a “test, measure, learn” approach, focused on yield, quality, and long-term performance rather than short-term efficiency gains.

Mark also shares a cautionary insight: optimizing for cost can actually reduce productivity. His experience of hitting cost targets in pruning, only to see production decline, highlights a broader challenge in agriculture: efficiency is not the same as effectiveness.

Mark and Maddie discuss:

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