Agovor

Growers across Australia are facing a turning point. Labour costs continue to rise, often making up to 20–80% range (with the industry average of around 40%) of production expenses, while limited labour availability restricts what can be achieved during narrow weather and cropgrowth windows. At the same time, farms must reduce water and chemical inputs and navigate increasingly complex orchard and berry systems.

Many conventional machines simply aren’t designed for today’s specialty crops – they’re too large, too heavy or too inflexible. As these pressures build, growers are searching for practical, scalable tools that bring time, precision and confidence back into their daily operations.

What Agovor does: Agovor empower growers with automation built specifically for horticulture. The Agovor® eTractor – a lightweight, 120kilogram autonomous machine with more than ten hours of runtime and strong towing capacity – moves easily through narrow rows. Through modular attachments, it can mow, spray and carry out other critical tasks with independent consistency. Supported by a robust cloud platform, the Agovor Portal lets growers oversee a single etractor or coordinate several at once. It offers a future where growers can work smarter, not harder, with a system that adapts as their operations evolve – opening doors for growers of all sizes through professionalgrade automation without the high cost or complexity of traditional machinery.

Agovor aligns strongly with Hort Innovation’s mission to accelerate technologies that improve efficiency and sustainability. Early adopters have already seen impressive results – annual savings around $30,000, dramatic reductions in water use (90%), and notable decreases in chemical inputs (12.5%). These outcomes directly support longterm industry priorities. By lowering the cost barrier to robotics and providing a defensible, scalable automation platform, Agovor delivers an innovation pathway that benefits not only large operations but also the thousands of small and medium growers who form the backbone of horticulture.

For growers, Agovor offers a meaningful shift in how work gets done. It automates labourintensive, repetitive tasks, freeing teams to focus on skilled activities that add greater value. Its affordability allows growers to build small fleets that work in parallel, keeping operations on schedule during critical growth periods. At the same time, reduced water and chemical use supports both economic and environmental goals. The flexible attachment system helps growers tailor one platform to multiple tasks, opening the door to more precise, timely and effective management practices.

As Agovor expands its line of attachments and enhances fleet coordination, growers can expect even deeper integration across their orchards, vineyards and berry environments. Future developments aim to support more complex crops like avocados, bananas and macadamias – systems where automation can make an especially profound difference. With ongoing upgrades to software, data capture and service networks, Agovor is working toward becoming a foundational automation layer that strengthens resilience, improves decisionmaking and keeps operations running smoothly even in tight windows.

Although built for horticulture, Agovor’s potential extends further. Its lightweight, narrow form suits vineyard environments well, making wine grapes a natural commercial extension. In young sugarcane and similar crops, its modular attachments could support targeted spraying, interrow work and monitoring. Because the system is cropagnostic, it has the flexibility to grow into new agricultural sectors, helping more growers adopt practical automation that respects their land and enhances their productivity.