Can Agri-Tech deliver new ‘golden age’ for farmers?

#News(AgriTech) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

Increasing agricultural productivity by improving UK farming practices is among the key aims of the government’s Agri-Tech strategy – a £90m investment with four Agri-Tech centres at its heart.

The technology these centres produce aims to revolutionise farming with tools to raise profits and improve Britain’s farm productivity, which lags well behind that of its global competitors.

For example, the contribution of UK farming to the economy would have been £4.3bn higher by 2013 had the rate of growth kept pace with the United States since 2000, according to AHDB figures.

“We have got to recover some of that and get our productivity back on pace again,” says Dave Ross, chief executive of the Agri-EPI centre.

The UK is getting better but still lags behind competitor countries including the Netherlands, Germany and the US, he adds.

A step-change in crop and livestock productivity is needed to help bridge this gap, Mr Ross believes. The uptake of precision and data technologies can reduce costs of food production and minimise impacts on the environment while raising farm profits, he says.

Different sectors require different solutions, adds Fraser Black, of the Crop Health and Protection Agri-Tech centre.

But as a starting point, all farmers should look for ways to optimise inputs and outputs while reducing the amount of waste their business generates.

Who benefits?

At recent field demonstrations at Newcastle University’s Cockle Park Farm, more than 200 entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers saw robots and drones such as the Agri-Rover, an autonomous vehicle that tests soil as it moves over the ground.

Close by, experts from Scotland’s Rural College showed how a medical CT scanner could identify the best sheep for breeding.

Farmer faces at the event, which was organised by government agency Innovate UK, were few and far between. But the two days were primarily a networking opportunity for agri-tech specialists, rather than a showcase for producers.

That said, some of the farmers present voiced frustration that the event was perhaps more impressive than practical. Critics included Tom Wornham, who travelled 260 miles from Buntingford in Hertfordshire to see how the latest agri-technology might benefit his poultry business.

“It’s wonderful that there is an enthusiasm for investment in agriculture – but it’s being driven by people who think there are improvements to be made in agriculture, rather than by farmers themselves.”

Other producers have voiced similar concerns. They fear some farmers could be left behind as bigger players – processors, retailers and multinationals – benefit from increasingly technological ways of producing food.

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