Published on the 27/06/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
Australia’s farmers and agri-businesses are being urged to adopt advanced sensor and networking technologies in order to drive productivity and increase overall production…
Technology may have revolutionised Australia’s financial, retail, manufacturing and education sectors, but adoption of ICT among farmers and primary producers has been “uneven and its full potential unrealised” according to the national research institution, the CSIRO. Underlining the extent of the problem, the CSIRO claims that only 70 percent of smaller farms currently have an internet connection.
In a new landmark report, Smart Farming: leveraging the impact of broadband and the digital economy, the CSIRO has revealed how judicious technology investment could deliver significant productivity gains to the sector. It also stresses how important technology will be in terms of achieving the National Food Plan goal to increase the value of agriculture and food exports by 45 percent by 2025. The CSIRO’s Sustainable Agriculture flagship research unit has set itself the goal to help the sector increase productivity by 50 per cent by 2030, while reducing the emissions per unit of food or fibre produced by 50 percent.
Agriculture today contributes three percent of Australia’s GDP, while the broader agri-business sector is responsible for 12 percent of GDP. A recent Meat & Livestock Australia report claimed productivity improvements of four to 26 percent could be achieved by deploying technologies for a range of activities including measurement and management of soil fertility, animal production and disease monitoring.
To demonstrate what is possible the CSIRO has worked intensively with the Kirby Smart Farm in Armidale, which not coincidentally was the site of one of the first deployments of Australia’s national broadband network (NBN). A 2800 hectare property, Kirby Smart Farm has access to a spatially enabled dataset for mapping and farm characterisation; has deployed 100 soil sensors which collect and report data every five minutes; uses wireless livestock tracking; and has set up in-field cameras with the potential for in-field video-conferencing with vets for example.
CSIRO recommends that farmers and agri-businesses prioritise the deployment of technology geared to managing soil fertility, monitoring pasture biomass and animal location and behaviour tracking as these have the clearest benefits.
However it acknowledges that there are still barriers for the sector in terms of the lack of detailed cost-benefit analysis and a limited supply of agriculture-specific software applications.
