Nationwide is expanding its technology investments from fintech to the insurer's founding industry: agriculture.
Central Ohio's largest private company has pledged an initial $2 million to establish the AgTech Innovation Hub at Ohio State University to fuel research on mitigating the effects of climate change on crop production, according to a news release. Nationwide plans additional funding in the future.
OSU's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences will work with Nationwide and OSU innovation offices.
“Transitioning to a green economy, climate change – these are long-view issues that won’t be fixed overnight," Nationwide CEO Kirt Walker said in the release. “Agriculture is a part of Nationwide’s DNA, and we believe it’s important to invest in resources that pave the way for a vibrant and robust food supply chain. This innovation hub will be an incubator for those groundbreaking ideas."
Technology already is deeply ingrained in agriculture, from genetically engineered seeds to autonomously piloted tillers. Nationwide was founded nearly a century ago as Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. by the nascent Ohio Farm Bureau.
OSU's agriculture college also is a key partner and first physical location for the university's terrestrial analog of George Washington Carver Science Park, part of the Starlab commercial space station set to replace the soon-to-retire International Space Station. Research will start on west campus until Starlab parent Voyager Space Holdings and its operating company Nanoracks LLC build a permanent facility at OSU Airport. Experiments aboard the space station – many involving hydroponic crops – will be duplicated in the earthbound twin lab.
The Nationwide-funded AgTech hub will result in collaborations with other universities and private industry and could produce spinoff companies, according to the release. Its research also could help resolve supply chain issues plaguing other industries.
Pre-pandemic, farming contributed $4 billion to the state economy, or 0.6% of Ohio's annual gross state product, according to OSU research. Since then the agriculture industry has grown rapidly, with a seasonally adjusted annual impact of $7 billion as of the first quarter this year, federal data indicate.
“Ohio farmers need new science, new strategies, new skills, new tools, new funding and new collaborations,” OSU President Kristina Johnson said in a statement. “(The hub) will offer fertile ground for programs and ideas that contribute to agricultural resiliency, food security and the economic security of farmers and food producers.”
