Agroscope

What Agroscope does

Agroscope is the Swiss Confederation's centre of excellence for agricultural research, operating as a departmental research institution affiliated with the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) under a statutory mandate rooted in Article 113ff of the Swiss Law on Agriculture. The institution was consolidated in 2014 through the merger of historical federal agricultural research stations dating from the late 19th century to the 1970s, and is currently structured around three central research centres (Posieux in canton Fribourg, Changins in canton Vaud, and Reckenholz in canton Zurich), plus a nationwide network of peripheral experimental stations covering special crops, digitalisation, viticulture, apiculture, equine research, and fruit growing. Approximately 501–1,000 staff execute 42 structured research programmes under the 2026–2029 Work Programme addressing plant production, livestock, food quality, environment and resources, and economics and technology for Swiss agricultural practitioners, cantonal authorities, and federal policy bodies.

The organisation's portfolio combines applied research and development, policy advisory work, statutory enforcement tasks, and knowledge-transfer/extension services. Core technology assets include the Agrometeo platform — built on a network of ~200 autonomous weather stations supplying microclimatic data to fungal disease and pest risk forecasting models — and a suite of decision-support web applications (PhytoPRE, FusaProg, Terranimo, Humus Balance Calculator, BeerenScoutingBaies, AgroTerm). Data services include the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) and the Full Costs Calculation tool for farm economics. Agroscope also publishes the open-access Swiss Agricultural Research journal with FiBL, BFH-HAFL, and ZHAW, alongside the Agroscope Transfer and Agroscope Science publication series and a tri-lingual magazine.

Agroscope operates as a publicly funded, non-commercial entity with no paid customer pricing. The 2016 funding base of CHF 192.6 million in total resources was approximately 89% ordinary federal government budget allocations, with the remaining ~10.7% (CHF 14.6 million) sourced as third-party project funding from SNSF (31%), private stakeholders (38%), CTI (10%), European Commission (5%), other public institutions (6%), and non-profit organisations (4%). Distribution occurs through knowledge-exchange networks, cantonal experimental-station partnerships, publications, digital channels (website, newsletters, social media on X, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, plus practitioner WhatsApp channels in German and French), and direct extension services to farming communities — no commercial sales motion exists. The institution is currently under fiscal pressure following Swiss Parliament and Federal Council savings measures that have created a ~CHF 10 million ordinary-budget structural deficit and triggered elimination of 58 full-time positions, prompting strategic refocusing around the 2026–2029 Work Programme under newly appointed Head Corinne Jud Khan.

Name

Agroscope

Legal name

Agroscope

Website

https://agroscope.admin.ch

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Agroscope is the Swiss federal centre of excellence for agricultural research, affiliated with the Federal Office for Agriculture. It conducts applied research, policy advice, and enforcement across a nationwide network of research centres and experimental stations, serving Swiss farmers, cantonal authorities, and federal policymakers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Government Agricultural Research

NAICS

Farm Management Services (115116), Crop Production (111)

SIC

Agricultural Services (700), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Decision Support & Agronomic Modeling (Yield, Irrigation, Pest/Disease Forecasting) (AFAAAFAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Farm Management & Decision Support Software (FMIS, ERP, Recordkeeping) (AFAGALAA), Farm Finance, Input Procurement & Risk Tools (Budgeting, Inventory, Insurance Links) (AFAAAFAO), Pest/Disease/Weed Detection & Forecasting Analytics (AFABAMAI), Farm Technology Enablement & Data Integration Advisory (FMIS/ERP, IoT, Decision Support) (AFACAJAG)

Keywords

• Agricultural research services
• Plant protection forecasting
• Farm economics data
• Food quality analysis
• Agricultural knowledge transfer

Headquarters

HQ city

Bern

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices10 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Federal Government Funding: Agroscope is primarily funded by ordinary federal government budget resources. In 2016, total resources used were CHF 192.6 million consisting of financially impacting CHF 136.3 million, non-financially impacting CHF 5.2 million, and service charges of CHF 51.1 million. Third-party funding includes contributions from SNSF, European Commission, CTI, public institutions, non-profit organisations, and private stakeholders.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Agroscope conducts applied agricultural research and development for the Swiss agriculture and food sector, provides scientific decision-making bases for public authorities, performs legal enforcement tasks, and engages in knowledge exchange and technology transfer with farming practitioners. It offers decision support tools such as the Agrometeo plant protection platform, a network of nearly 200 autonomous weather stations powering pest and disease forecasting models, and data services such as the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) and Full Costs Calculation for farm economics.

Product overview

Agroscope is the Swiss federal agricultural research institution offering a portfolio of research platforms, decision support tools, and publications for the agriculture and food sector. Its digital products include the Agrometeo platform for plant protection forecasting, multiple web applications for soil management, pest monitoring, and crop analysis, and data services like the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) and Full Costs Calculation. The institution also publishes the Swiss Agricultural Research journal, Agroscope Transfer practical reports, and the Agroscope Science series, along with the magazine agroscope. These offerings form a comprehensive research-to-practice knowledge ecosystem for Swiss agricultural practitioners.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Agrometeo: A platform providing decision support tools and information for better plant-protection management in agriculture, based on a network of almost 200 autonomous weather stations
• Swiss Agricultural Research
• Agroscope Transfer
• Agroscope Science

Products and services

• Agrometeo A platform providing decision support tools and information for better plant-protection management in agriculture, based on a network of almost 200 autonomous weather stations supplying microclimatic data used by various fungal disease and pest risk forecasting models.
• Full Costs Calculation (Vollkosten) An agribusiness management tool that enables all costs including imputed costs for equity capital and deployed labour to be allocated to a farm activity, depicting actual profitability in a transparent manner for decision-making basis for practitioners and extension services.
• Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) Agroscope collects agricultural accountancy data within the framework of the Farm Accountancy Data Network, providing the basis for full-cost calculations and annual income monitoring for the Swiss agricultural sector.
• AgroTerm (Agricultural Dictionary) Agricultural dictionary providing terminology and definitions for agricultural professionals.
• BeerenScoutingBaies Berry scouting application for monitoring and managing berry crops.
• FusaProg Application related to fungal disease programming and forecasting.
• TPPT Database (Toxic Plants Phyotoxin) Database of toxic plants and phytotoxins for agricultural and veterinary reference.
• Humus Balance Calculator Calculator tool for assessing and monitoring humus levels in agricultural soils.
• PhytoPRE Plant protection decision support tool.
• Terranimo Model for prediction of the risk of soil compaction.
• Swiss Agricultural Research Journal Open access publication publishing articles from project partners on agricultural and food economics subjects.
• Agroscope Transfer Series Series synthesizing findings and experience from Agroscope research papers into short, practical reports for practitioners and agricultural extension services.
• Agroscope Science Research results and recommendations organized under seven thematic headings: Plants, Animals, Food, Environment, Economics, Social Aspects and Technology.
• Magazine agroscope Magazine published several times a year available in German, French and English covering highlights from Agroscope research, including the Annual Report.

Quantifiable outcome

• Full-cost calculation data published annually online for farm decision-making
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• AgroVet Strickhof / ETH ZurichcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 June 2026Collaborative partnership for the Alp Weissenstein project (canton of Graubünden) studying impact of grazing animals on dwarf shrub control. ETH Zurich-owned facility hosting experimental herds for vegetation development research.
• InsolightcoreTechnology or IntegrationSwiss clean-tech company collaborating with Agroscope on agrivoltaics research, investigating the effects of different agrivoltaics solutions and types of shading on strawberry and raspberry crops. The study analysed influence of light per square metre per day on yield, fruit quality, and production parameters.
• Swiss Cantons (Bern, Graubünden, Ticino, Uri, Valais)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFive partner cantons of the Experimental Station for Alpine and Mountain Farming collaborating on Project DryMount (2023-2027) for development of drought-resistant forage crop mixtures for mountain regions.
• Canton of LucernecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerExperimental Station for Nutrient Flows provides comprehensive data on farms in the Canton of Lucerne, with Dr. Hans Dieter Hess from the cantonal Agriculture and Forestry service serving as contact.
• Swiss Universities and Higher Education InstitutionscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAgroscope offers students and doctoral candidates opportunity to write bachelor's, master's or doctoral theses while embedded in Agroscope activities, with application-oriented research questions, modern infrastructure, and competent technical support.
• Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAgroscope is affiliated with and under the control of the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) in the Federal Administration. FOAG defines strategic orientation through the Agriculture and Food Sector Research Concept.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS): The in-house research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, conducting applied and basic research across crops, livestock, food safety, and natural resources. The most direct American analogue in terms of statutory mission, geographic network of research stations, and policy-support role.
• Wageningen University & Research (WUR): Netherlands-based public research and education organisation widely regarded as the global benchmark for applied agricultural and food sciences. Directly comparable in mandate (research, knowledge exchange, policy advice) and in operating applied-research stations and decision-support tools.
• INRAE (France): France's national public research institute for agriculture, food, and environment, operating at substantially larger scale with a similarly broad mandate across plant, animal, food, and environmental sciences. Closest international analogue to Agroscope's statutory centre-of-excellence model.
• Agroscope-equivalent: EMBRAPA (Brazil): Brazil's public agricultural research corporation, known for tropical-crop breeding and large-scale applied research, with a similarly strong statutory mandate and federal funding base. Comparable as a public-sector applied agricultural research platform, though with a very different crop focus.
• CSIRO Agriculture and Food (Australia): Australia's national science agency division for agriculture and food, with a comparable remit spanning applied crop, livestock, and food research plus policy support. Comparable in scale and breadth, and in operating research stations across diverse agro-ecological zones.

Direct peers

• FiBL (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture): Swiss-based applied agricultural research institute with a comparable public-funded, applied-research model focused on organic and sustainable farming, also publishing practitioner-oriented extension materials. Directly comparable as a domestic research peer with overlapping crop, livestock, and soil research themes.
• Rothamsted Research: One of the oldest agricultural research institutions in the world (founded 1843), based in the UK, with a comparable mix of long-term field experimentation, agronomic decision-support models, and applied plant/soil research. Comparable scale and orientation.
• Arvalis - Institut du végétal: French applied agricultural research institute focused on arable crops, with a similar practitioner-oriented model, decision-support tools (e.g., for crop protection and fertilization), and farmer-extension interface. Closely comparable in mission and tools to Agroscope's Plant Production division.

Emerging players

• John Innes Centre: UK-based, BBSRC-funded research centre focused on plant science and microbiology, with a more basic-research orientation but overlapping mandate in plant protection and crop genetics. Comparable as a publicly funded agricultural science institution, though narrower in scope.

Regional players

• IFAPA (Instituto Andaluz de Investigación y Formación Agraria): Spain's Andalusian regional agricultural research and training institute, operating multiple experimental stations and applied-research programmes. Comparable in role (regional applied research, knowledge transfer, decision-support tools) but operating in a different geography.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/agroscope
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/agroscopevideo
• Facebookfacebook.com/agroscope
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/agroscope
• Instagraminstagram.com/agroscope_ch

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Agroscope