Embrace Agricultural Technology
After years of research, investment, innumerable discussions and reasonable utilisation, the decade leading to 2030 will be a critical period for agtech to move into widespread implementation in Australian agriculture.
Over every decade, technology continues to play a major role in the development of Australian agriculture. From the efficiency and productivity improvements of early developments like the Sunshine harvester, technological advancements are a mainstay of the Australian agricultural supply chain.
At every step, these advancements bring multiple benefits, from increasing the production levels of farmers, to enhancing both the availability and quality of food accessible to consumers.
In the past, advancements in technology have been so widespread across Australian agriculture that many of them are now taken for granted and accepted as part of everyday working life. They range from pregnancy testing in livestock to Global Positioning Systems in farm cropping machinery and everywhere in between.
Whilst the term has become somewhat cliché, ‘agtech’ is just over a decade old. Its era began with the transition of main agricultural production drivers moving from mechanical to digital. Most of these major agtech developments have occurred in the past 10 years. This period can certainly be viewed as one of both technological advancements as well as one of major investment.
Despite the growth in development and investment, the rate of implementation of agtech to the wider agricultural production landscape has been relatively slow over the past decade, particularly by small to medium farming businesses.
Comparisons between the Green Revolution of the 1960s and the ‘Agtech Revolution’ of recent times are worth examining to highlight the importance of action. The Green Revolution was effective because the products that had been developed were adopted widely and quickly. Farmers, globally and particularly in the developed world, began utilising new fertilisers, pesticides and seeds to produce hardier, more plentiful and better-quality crops.
The years to 2030 must become a period when agtech development moves into the mainstream with widespread adoption. Making this happen will rely on people who have the ability to accelerate implementation, analyse their progress and create pathways for others in the sector.
One great benefit arising from an increase in agtech implementation will be the concurrent growth in sustainability measures. Reduced water usage for horticulture, or lower fertiliser and pesticide application on crops and pastures will yield returns with many ecological benefits. Without them, the barriers to increased investment in agriculture will be raised higher.
Further along the supply chain, the utilisation of agtech and the subsequent efficiency gains are also likely to contribute to a marked reduction in fossil fuel usage.
Impetus for further accelerated agtech uptake has been highlighted by the impact of COVID-19 on the domestic food, beverage and agribusiness supply chain, right from the moment the pandemic began in 2020. While much of the agriculture supply chain continued to function well through the various COVID-19 disruptions, the most fragile components of the supply chain were those that were highly reliant on human labour. These included activities such as meat processing and fruit picking. Other labour-reliant agricultural activities such as sheep shearing and grain harvesting also faced strong concerns about their ability to operate.
The impact of COVID-19 has been most apparent in online food retailing. While the usage of online retailing had been rising gradually over the past decade, it almost doubled over the course of the first few months of COVID-19. As the market share of online retailers grows, this change will accelerate the development of online platforms by many retailers, especially supermarkets.
The impact of this will continue to flow back through supply chains as a result. The hypothetical impact of these industries not functioning due to labour shortages would have been one of the most serious of the pandemic – a curbing of the ability for food to reach both major population centres as well as export points.
The fields of robotics and automation across a number of agricultural sectors have experienced some of the biggest agtech developments. Despite this, COVID-19-related disruptions highlighted the concerning evidence that relatively few of Australia’s agricultural supply chains currently utilise these technologies.
While COVID-19 saw the uptake of these technologies accelerated at the distribution and retail end of the supply chain, far more activity needs to ramp up around production and processing. Incorporating new levels of automation and robotics as either upgrades or new developments though Australia’s agriculture supply chains is essential.
In the coming decade, likely increases in regulatory requirements around sustainability will create further impetus for widespread uptake of agtech. A greater compulsion to show a range of sustainability metrics – such as reducing water usage or carbon capture – will push many agricultural producers to utilise relevant agtech mechanisms to boost their ability to achieve and record future sustainability metrics.
