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The future of ag-tech: reflections on four decades of innovation By Peter Schmidt
After nearly 40 years in the ag-tech industry, I’ve witnessed remarkable transformations in how technology shapes modern agriculture and lifts farming productivity and profitability. From the early days of basic record-keeping to today’s AI-driven insights, the evolution has been nothing short of revolutionary. But where will technology take us next?
The early days: from gut in- stinct to data-driven decisions When I began my career in the early 1990s, on-farm technology was primarily focused on record- ing financial, crop, and livestock data. The mantra was simple: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” For many farm- ers who relied on gut instinct, this shift to data-driven deci- sion-making was a revelation. As computing power advanced in the 1990s, farm management became increasingly granular. Livestock performance, for ex- ample, could be monitored at an
anywhere in Australia, unlocking new possibilities for real-time monitoring and automation. Smart sensors capable of de- tecting pests and diseases, using images, sound or hyperspectral analysis allow farmers to mon- itor crops more frequently and accurately in ways that 10 years ago would have seemed impos- sible. For example, Laser dop- pler vibrometers can accurately detect insect species from their unique beating wing signature. High-resolution satellite imagery, available daily, enables remote assessment of land and crop con-
individual animal level and crop inputs were tailored to ever- smaller areas—sometimes down to individual plants. Precision agriculture was born and farming entered a new era of efficiency of “doing more with less”. The next frontier: connectivity, AI, and smart sensors One of the biggest challenges in rural and remote areas has al- ways been online connectivity. But with providers of satellite internet constellations like Star- link, high-speed internet is now accessible to farmers almost
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