An innovative trial, testing the potential of Internet of Things technology on farms, is now open to Victorian horticulture, dairy, sheep and grains sectors.
Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes visited the southern Mallee to open expressions of interest in the $12million trial.
Ms Symes said the trial would support Victorian farmers to investigate and capitalise on the opportunities of digital technology, putting themselves - and Victorian agriculture - at the forefront of farming innovation.
"We've been working with Victorian farmers to understand how digital technology can revolutionise their businesses - and we're excited to invite farmers to trial new IoT technology on their own farms," Ms Symes said.
"Our IoT trial is an ambitious program supporting Victorian farmers to be at the forefront of modern agriculture, to improve farm productivity, efficiency and safety."
She said embracing digital agriculture had the potential to boost the value of Australia's agricultural production by $20.3 billion.
IoT technology - making appliances 'smart' by connecting them to each other via the internet - was at the heart of that growth.
The IoT technology allows farmers to gather on-farm data from embedding sensors on devices, such as soil moisture probes, weather stations and silo storage monitors.
Over the next two years, Agriculture Victoria will partner with hundreds of farms in the trial across four regions: dairy, Maffra, grains, Birchip, sheep, Serpentine and horticulture,Tatura.
The program was now encouraging farmers who wanted to take a low-risk approach to investing in new technology to apply for the program and trial new devices that could boost their farm's efficiency and productivity.
In the first round of the trial, eligible farmers will have access to grants of up to $30,000 to cover up to two-thirds of the cost of acquiring IoT technology, from a catalogue of products put together for the trial.
Four Agriculture Victoria Industry Technology Co-ordinators were also recently appointed to support farmers to select technologies that best match the needs of their business.
Farmers interested in taking part in the new trial can submit their expression of interest at agriculture.vic.gov.au/digitalag.
Expressions of interest close on 2 August.
