The-Gatherer-Volume-7

THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE – A 2050 VISION

ARE WE GOING BACK TO THE FUTURE?

It certainly seems that way. When looking at all these benefits and attributes brought about by IoT, we can see that what it’s really enabling is for the agriculture sector to take a ‘back to the future approach’ – shifting the landscape and taking the production of food and the food supply chain, back to what it was like before globalisation. What do we mean by that? Before supply chains were globalised and herd sizes grew from 50 to 500, people had a real and direct connection with the land. It was the time of the subsistence farmer where it was less about making a profit and more about ensuring a productive food supply all year round – good quality, in abundance, and all whilst caring for the environment.

He also looks down on his balance sheet and he’s pleased to know that he’s sold 10 head of cattle overnight. The cattle’s been bought by a restaurant in China who wants that specific type of breed and a particular cut. He won’t release the cattle until they are ready, but now there’s a Chinese owner who has visibility through a webcam that can see the exact animals they’ve bought. He’s able to connect to nano- satellites to power all of his IoT devices across his farm and he can correlate all his data. He is very thankful for these cheap, abundant satellites that are all floating around above him and he’s very, very thankful that he can also get much more detailed data when necessary by flying his multi-spectral drone around his property. Whilst this may sound a little far- fetched for some, the promising fact is that all these technologies are already available. They’ve all been built and are in the process of scaling or have sent their technology around the world. The challenge is how the developers and others in the ecosystem can collaborate rather than compete –bringing together the technology to achieve a unified solution for the end user.

In the eyes of Cal Foulner – the future of the agriculture sector is exciting. “When the farmer walks out of his bedroom in the morning, he has a cup of tea in his hand, he pulls out his iPad rather than his notebook and he thinks, “What a time to be alive.” He notices his daughter, who is a recent graduate and has come back on farm, hasn’t woken up yet. So he quickly runs back inside and bangs on her door. She comes out looking a bit hungover, but she’s a real asset to the business despite being a social butterfly because she not only has an ag science degree, she also has a computer science degree which is very handy these days. He pulls out his one app - not his 25 apps for 25 different solutions - opens it up and sees the dashboard of his farm. He looks down his notifications. He notices that in one of his paddocks, there’s an anomaly. So he flies his drone down while he has his second cup of tea. He learns what looks like a certain pest has got into one of his paddocks so he thinks, “Jeez, I’ll need to go and do something about that.” So, he drags his notification into his to do list. He’s just about to write down in his to do list, ‘order some more herbicide,’ but he realises his system has automatically ordered it for him and it’s going to be delivered tomorrow.

CAL FOULNER Founder, Beanstalk

Cal Foulner is Co-founder and Director of Beanstalk agtech, a venture building business operating at the intersection of the fast-evolving agtech and agriculture sectors in Australia and across Asia. Cal and his team work to support the commercialisation of agtech startups and help farmers and agribusinesses innovate by scouting best in class technology and facilitating tech trialling and adoption.

IOT IN AN AGRICULTURAL CONTEXT IoT are connected devices, such as environmental

8|The Gatherer For example, climate and weather conditions can be monitored with very high precision, increasing the farmer’s potential for a more successful yield. Smart Tags on cattle allow the exact control of livestock movements. Smart collars and the creation of virtual fences will even ensure that stock won’t leave the paddock alleviating the need for fences. Equipment, water tanks and grain silos can be precisely monitored from a phone in real-time. sensors that collect and transfer data to be analysed in the cloud. This ubiquitous data exchange and analysis assists with decision making and enables new applications and business models. IoT is revolutionising the way assets are managed in farming and agriculture, including the automation of growing processes, monitoring weather conditions with precision, and control of livestock movements. Post the farm gate, produce can be tracked using IoT and block chain technology, ensuring food transparency and provenance. Did that marble scored steak that I ate last night actually come from the farm where the farmer massaged the meat, as they said, or did it come from a less salubrious location?

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