Doug Fitch

Doug Fitch grew up being fascinated by farming and later worked for a global crop science company, but it wasn’t until he spent time working on the land that he saw the problem – and the opportunity – that was to become Agworld.

Helping out on farm when one of his family members fell ill, Doug saw how challenging it was for farmers to adopt the digital technology that was already transforming other sectors. Even on vast stations such as those in his home state of Western Australia, farmers were still operating without the advantages offered by digital technology, such as improved precision, automation and data-driven decision-making at speed.

Doug’s ambition was to empower growers to embrace digital transformation and become price makers rather than price takers. In 2009, he and his co-founders launched Agworld to create software solutions that bring the digital revolution to the land. The Agworld team consulted with farmers and agronomists to understand their unique challenges and ensure the SaaS products they were building solved the most pressing problems.

Doug knew that in the face of unfamiliar technology, farming communities can revert to proven methods. So, unlike its competitors, Agworld took a ground-up approach. They focused first on digital tools to help enhance soil management and crop production, then production costs, gross margin and finally profit.

Doug encouraged experimentation among his team, fuelling a strong product iteration/feedback loop, based on constant input from customers. In Doug’s view, it is only ever a failure if you do nothing.

Working with service providers – agronomists – helped to increase their market share and reach and took Agworld to a global audience. Today in Australia, 90% of agronomists use Agworld solutions, connecting to most farmers across the country. Growing market share in the USA, NZ and Canada, Agworld prioritised understanding local issues and in August 2021 was acquired by Canadian agtech firm Semios.

Agworld’s grower-centric approach has helped farmers move from pen and paper to realise the power of digital technology, improving yields and efficiencies in the present and laying a clear path for successors. As Agworld’s Global CEO, Doug is driven by his passion to lead the company through its next season of impressive growth.