organic farming

organic farming Digital agriculture refers to the employment of computational and information technologies and offers new opportunities through the ubiquitous availability of highly interconnected and data-intensive tools as part of the so-called “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” It applies to all crop and livestock systems in that it reflects a shift from generalized management of farm resources towards highly optimized, individualized, real-time, hyper-connected, and data-driven management. The desired outcomes of leveraging digital agriculture are more profitable and sustainable production systems. The technologies that enable digital agriculture are multiple and varied and are inclusive of conventional precision agriculture tools, as well as computational and sensing tools that are yet to be developed. Production efficiencies can be gained from the integration of data associated with multiple technologies and the real-time transfer of data and information between field equipment, barn, office, and the Cloud.

Data analytics and telematics (the long-distance transfer of digital information) is key to achieving the benefits from digital agriculture. The main enabling tools that exist today include sensors, digital controllers, digital communication (cellular, broadband, and others), and computational decision tools. Field-based activities are also enabled by geo-location (GPS), geographical information systems (GIS), yield monitors, precision soil sampling, proximal and remote sensing, unmanned aerial vehicles, variable rate technologies, auto-steer, guidance, and robotics. Livestock-specific technologies include radio frequency identification, automatic milking systems, and electronic feeding systems, among others.

Assessing Needs for Digital Agriculture

Our farmer survey suggested several interventions for improving digital agriculture adoption. A recurring theme of both the workshop and the survey was the large current analytics and data management gap relative to the capabilities of modern-day equipment, uncertainty about technology benefits, and inadequate digital connectivity. 34 percent of respondents indicated insufficient technical support, while 51 percent reported that they are uncertain of how to implement new technologies in a profitable manner.

Agriculture is following other industry sectors in that the benefits from digital technologies are the primary source of increased production efficiencies. In a global economic environment, our regional agriculture’s competitiveness is strongly tied to its ability to innovate in these key aspects of the production system. But digital agriculture will also create a digital divide in the farming community. Therefore, this adoption process needs to be supported in an environment that allows the entire farming community to fully capitalize on the production efficiency gains. Concerns with data tend to focus around security and privacy, the use of such data by private companies to advance their own rather than public interests, as well as farmer's ability to employ their own data to improve management and profitability.