Deloitte co-lead's agtech tips

This is according to the report Deloitte Center for Technology, Media and Telecommunications' TMT Predictions 2024.

But what are the best steps for farmers to take to make sure they are well-placed to take advantage of this massive opportunity?

Report co-author and Deloitte co-lead agrifood transformation and circularity Ben van Delden - who features in the AgTech Revolution series being hosted on all ACM Agri websites - says there are a range of steps farmers can take to make sure they are part of this incredible change in agriculture.

"Find your local drought and innovation hubs. They've been doing a lot of work on technology that is relevant for the farming systems in their regions," he said.

"To spotlight one, the Southern NSW Innovation Hub, that operates under Charles Sturt University, has been working with Meat & Livestock Australia on developing an agtech cost/benefit calculator that helps a producer work out the full cost of deploying technology solutions."

Mr van Delden said it was important for producers to consider other aspects rather than just the upfront and running costs of agtech.

"It's also getting your head around how can I avoid costs that I have now by deploying agtech? Or what can I do with that freed-up time? Or how can I take my team out of a potentially riskier environment?" he said.

Mr van Delden also urged producers to consider what some of the future regulations might be around what they're doing on-farm.

"Be mindful of some of the types of questions you'll get asked a producer in the future. If you haven't already had people asking 'have you assessed what your greenhouse gas emissions are?', 'what is your Co2 equivalent footprint?', we are seeing that type of question become increasingly relevant to processors and retailers," he said.

"I think when farmers are considering the use of agtech they should also be asking themselves 'is this the way I can efficiently get some of the evidence that I need to be able to participate in the markets that I want to send my products into?'

"Literacy is another important aspect, staying aware of what's available. There's some really good ways to get across the technology availability including the AgTech Finder platform."

Agtech adoption globally

Mr van Delden said a lot of the Internet of Things uptake in agriculture was happening overseas.

"When you've got big cropping players (like in the US), the IoT sensors that are on the harvesters and seeding equipment, is where you get a lot of that precision ag IoT device deployment occurring," he said.

"Then in some of the intensive horticulture, particularly in markets like the Netherlands where you have large glasshouse production systems, there's quite a lot of IoT devices within those closed environments. That's because you can network the building, just like you do your office, effectively creating your own WiFi network within the glasshouse. This enables you to run quite precise robotics and also in some cases nano drones are being used in those environments to fly and intercept invasive insects, so rather than spray them it's like an aerial lawn mower that flies into the pest and neutralises it, and then returns the mini drone back to its docking station. But you need high connectivity in those environments to be able to have that kind of equipment.

"There is also quite a lot in equipment tracking, if you think about John Deere for example that has a self diagnosis tool which when the equipment needs maintenance it sends an alert back to John Deere headquarters, and also pumping systems and irrigation systems have quite a lot of IoT device integration as well.

"Increasingly now we're starting to see some of the tracking devices deployed into the livestock sector, and that's an example of where Australia has really led a lot of the development. Businesses like Ceres Tag and Moovement have done a lot of their product development testing here in Australia and are now promoting their solutions into global markets."

IoT device uptake

Mr van Delden said there were a range of reasons why IoT uptake was growing so much in the agricultural sector.

"The uptake of IoT devices across all industries has been on the rise. The drivers primarily are climate issues that we face and the uncertainties, such as when should I get my crop off? But also some of the financial challenges facing the production sector as well. If you think about operating with a low margin, as a producer, you can't afford to have any form of crop loss," he said.

"Of course we've got labour shortages as well so we're seeing more and more of a pivot towards automation. A statistic that's really interesting is that since the turn of this century we had roughly 180,000 people working in food and agricultural production per million in the population globally and that's reduced by a third."

To learn more about agtech, the AgSmart Connect event is being held in Tamworth on March 6-7.