Harnessing the benefits of new on-farm technology was the focus of a Victorian government roundtable yesterday.
Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford said the discussion brought together farmers, technology experts and industry leaders.
“Our job is not to be developing products, but providing the tools where the private sector can,” Ms Pulford said.
The roundtable also discussed systems, such as the roll out of the electronic identification tags for sheep and goats.
Ms Pulford said the application of robotics, precision agriculture, sensors, GPS trackers and other digital technology was helping shape the future of agriculture.
“The notion of digital agriculture encompasses lots of things, like precision farming systems, so how we can foster a culture of innovation and support start ups in this area, in Victoria ?
“How we can address a skill or cultural divide among our producers? Some are very early adopters, and rush to new technology, others are flat out working out how to use their new phones, and are less confident, but very interested.”
Ms Pulford said the government’s job was to foster innovation, so farmers felt comfortable embracing new technology.
”There was discussion around systems the government might administer or oversee, which in turn, results in a whole lot of other innovation.
“Governments can create the system where this kind of innovation and product development is welcomed and supported.
“There will be some roarding successes, there will be others which only get so far, but if you don’t start, I don’t think you are going to really hit those high points of success.”
VFF Horticulture president Emma Germano said agricultural sector “silos” needed to be broken down.
“One of the things that was very apparent, there is a real ‘siloed’ effect - often we have got the technology, we have got the research, we have got the farmers, but who is bringing all that together?
“That cross pollination of ideas and that collaboration is essentially what is going to drive this.” She called for mixed farmer meetings, involving technology experts.
“The biggest need is the conduit, between what happens on farm, and what happens off farm.”
She said it was very encouraging, the government was open to hosting such events.
“One of the biggest challenges is adoption, and making sure we get that adoption onto family farms.
“There are generational differences between the adoption and uptake of technology, and how do we ensure everyone is going to benefit from that uptake and what the role of the government is ?
“What’s the line between commercialisation and whats about free open markets ?”
Mr Germano said government had to be “the chief collaborator.
“Converstations like this are very encouraging, because they have brought together a group of people, it facilitates that collaboration and networking, that needs to happen for this to be beneficial to all the different stakeholders.
“It’s also the role of the government to provide resources, in whatever context that means - it’s not just financial, but bringing the table there and getting the right people to sit at it.”
Mr Germano said horticultural had traditionally not been an export focussed industry, which made individual players tend to see others as competitors.
“I think that is hampering our ability to either be innovative, or adopt new technologies, because you need to have that critical mass or that support so technology can be cheap enough.
“Sometimes instead of spending 100,000 on technology, you simply need to buy a new tractor.”
She said as producers around the world were becoming “cleaner and greener”, so new technology could help Australia stay to the forefront of that movement.
”If we really want to maintain that image and get our goods out to the rest of the world, we need to be doing more than just the baseline, and digital agriculture is really going to assist with that.”
She said that would involve traceability, telling the story about such things as precision agriculture and honing in on provenance “to give us a leg up, in the rest of the world.”