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the australian farmer
this is all about the cage that they have gloriously removed to allow the bird to be free (techno- logical advancement). But as the bird doesn’t embrace this then it must be afraid or suffer from anxiety i.e. the bird’s fault. What if we started this process by ask- ing or considering what the bird actually wants or why it is in a cage in the first place? Maybe it wants to be in the cage, maybe it doesn’t fly, maybe there is a cat sitting on the outside and by assuming the cage is not needed you have sentenced the poor fella to being lunch. A simple way for Agtech pro- viders to flip the scenario and put themselves in the “bird’s/ grow- er’s shoes” is do they own a ro- botic vacuum, an electric car, and a fully solar powered energy effi- cient building? If not why? They incorporate cutting edge tech, offer massive efficiencies (labour and power), and are better for the environment. Would it not be con- sidered hypocritical if these de- velopers do not have these latest technological advancements in their own places of business, are they scared? Furthermore, if they do in fact have all these things, have they read all the manuals to ensure they are using all the func- tionality appropriately to get the best result? Following these trains of thought, I don’t think it’s fair to suggest a grower suffers from fear or anxiety because they ha- ven’t adopted the latest tech. The failures are more likely to be due to the cost of tech, the relevance of the tech to their
(LinkedIn post by Nathan Faleide 19th Sept 2024).
proposed solution (validation); and then support on how to adopt, apply, interpret, and then maintain the technical solution into common day practice. Tree crops: A nice example of application driving Agtech Starting with the industry need. In 2014, CEOs from three Aus- tralian tree crop industry associ- ations identified two main needs: The first was to have a more ac- curate understanding of the ex- tent (location and area) of their respective industries, the second was having a more accurate way for predicting yield earlier in the growing season. This request came at the start of the “Drone” and subsequent “Agtech” booms and as such there was the opportunity to throw
needs, the time required to learn and adopt it as well as change from current practice, and also ongoing support. There are many drones gathering dust due to dif- ficulties in downloading, analys- ing and understanding the data, not to mention flat batteries and broken propellers. From my experience, the fol- lowing guidelines have led to the successful development and adoption of Agtech that tran- scends most of the “booms”. These are: find out what are the main three limitations to the current farming operation (the need); find out what are the cur- rent commercial practices and what are the short falls; find out what tech is best suited for the required application; find out how accurate and reliable is the
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