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Rural technology
Precision data is key Michelle Nelson
RURAl reporter
A
n American scientist checks his smart phone to watch as a corn trial plot is sown in Alabama, during a presentation in the Hotel Ashburton. Not only can Dr John Fulton see how much progress has been made, he can also see the input applications, seed population and any deviations in spacing, along with many more data layers. Dr Fulton, from the Auburn University, specialisies in precision agriculture, and was in Ashburton to talk to farmers recently, courtesy of the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) and the New Zealand
Centre for Precision Agriculture. He says data is the future of agriculture, and the United States is spending millions, attracting investors like Google to invest in data space. “At Auburn University we build information for farmers, by educating consultants, running farmer workshops and offering on-farm assistance and research, and bringing technology onto farms to engage farmers a lot more about data management, Dr Fulton said. “Farmers need to get interested in data management to drive decisions and invest in technology. “Data is the number one discussion in the US, where the goal is to double production by 2050, by increasing yield and production – the environmental stuff is coming but not to the level New
Precision agriculture specialist Dr John Fulton.
Zealand deals with. We don’t have the regulations you have, but farmers are becoming engaged as to what sustainable means.” Dr Fulton said in the future agricultural data will be crucial to farm management and farmers without the data
will not be able to prove sustainable management practices and could be shut out of markets. Agricultural data services, such as those driven by Monsanto and John Deere, are forcing farmers into data space – the big question is ownership.
“Farmers own the data – the question is ownership versus licensing, if Monsanto owns the licence the data automatically goes to Monsanto’s cloud – the licence allows them full access,” Dr Fulton said. “Data streams and connectivity means machine and agronomy data is flowing between compatible bases and clouds. “Every machine has a modem from which they can peel data off. You need to think about how it could be used against you.” Dr Fulton said farmer groups in the US were looking at ways to put some regulations around data use to protect privacy. It is already possible to buy remote sensor imagery which details how much crop a farmer has in, the varieties and the potential yield and how much is in the silos. “If I can fly over your farm and collect that data, who would own it?” he asked. In the worst case scenario, such information could be used to influence markets, he said.
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