18
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
Digital Agriculture: A Tale of Unrealised Expectations?
By Prof. Simon Cook, Dr. Elizabeth L. Jackson, and Prof. Derek Baker.
Time to build on the success of bottom-up and multi-disciplinary approaches, for more industry led agricultural innovations that add value.
technology. But clarity is needed to explain how change is likely to occur, what drives and what obstructs change, given the pe- culiarities of agriculture and the array of factors to consider. Here we attempt to demystify the pro- cess of digitisation for Australian agriculture to establish a solid basis for expectations. We do so by: 1. Defining the potential for
have no doubt that digital tech- nology will ultimately deliver major change to Australian agri- culture. But what will this change look like to Aussie farmers, and how can they meaningfully en- gage? In the absence of concrete analysis, narratives can evap- orate and leave people disillu- sioned, creating a problem for those doggedly pursuing authen- tic progress. Agriculture, we know, has enormous potential for pro- ductive change through digital
Digital agriculture has attracted plenty of excitement in recent years from investors – close to USD30B a year so far and increas- ing, pandemic notwithstanding. The vision of drones zooming over Australian rural landscapes to de- tect crop nutrition status or of ro- bots tending vertical farms make a good story. And though narra- tives are powerful influencers for change as pointed out by Nobel Laureate Robert Shiller i , many are built on uncertain foundations. We, too, like these ideas and
digital agriculture globally as food systems respond to growing demand;
2. Explaining
common
causes of failure; 3. Identifying the different pathways to success - how they work and how they can be realised in Austral- ian agriculture; and 4. Finally, we focus on what farmers can expect from these changes, and what they and their partners need to do to lever the power of digital for sus- tainable growth.
Powered by FlippingBook