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A SOUTH Australian start up has received nearly $500,000 to build new software to reduce the incidence workplace deaths and injuries on farms.
Safe Ag Systems has been approved to receive $498,000 in staged funding through the South Australian Early Commercialisation Fund, making it the largest grantee since the program was introduced in November 2016.
Safe Ag Systems develops cloud-based software to enable agribusiness to develop and maintain their workplace health and safety systems and assist with ongoing compliance.
The South Australian group was co-founded by Caroline Graham, a Yorke Peninsula farm owner, and daughter and CEO Katy Landt.
South Australian Manufacturing and Innovation Minister Kyam Maher says Safe Ag is an example of how South Australia attracts forward thinking innovation.
"Often the best innovations come from real life experience by recognising a gap in the market and working to make those ideas a reality," says Maher.
"Safe Ag Systems is an example of how the South Australian Government is working with entrepreneurs to bring those ideas to market through its staged early commercialisation program."
CEO Katy Landt says the Safe Ag System is more important now than ever in Australia.
"Even though Australia is a world leader in agriculture production, it's currently the number one industry for workplace fatalities in Australia, with 24 per cent of work-related deaths occurring on farms," says Landt.
"We need to create a shift in the behaviour of farmers when it comes to farm safety. This will only happen if the tools we present to them are simple, educational and specific to farming."
The $10 million, four-year SA Early Commercialisation Fund provides staged grants of up to $500,000.
Recent recipients of the grant include Liquid Integrity Systems who developed remote sensing for leak detection in lined liquid waste facilities, and SMR Automotive Australia who are developing a hand-held 3D printing surgical device.
Business News Australia
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