Students gain insight into agtech

Secondary students from across the Wimmera and southern Mallee have had a chance to see digital agriculture in action as part of a statewide Digital Innovation Festival.

More than 100 students from Kaniva, Rainbow, Balmoral, Birchip, Charlton and Stawell took part in a tour and activities at Grains Innovation Park in Horsham.

During the event the students had an opportunity to gain insight in cutting-edge technology the agricultural scientific community was using and pursuing in the industry.

The students visited the Australian Grains Genebank, home to more than 300,000 crop varieties from around the world and heard from Agriculture Victoria’s plant phenomics team on how unmanned aerial vehicles such as drones were being used to collect data and speed up plant-breeding processes. During a tour of the seed phenomics and quality-traits laboratories, the students also heard how near-infrared multispectral and hyperspectral sensors were used to measure grain quality.

Mark Gould, co-ordinating Victoria’s Onfarm Internet of Things Trial for the grains industry, also took part in the day.

He shared how farmers were adopting new technologies such as soil-moisture probes to improve the productivity, sustainability and profitability of their businesses.

A demonstration of emergency-management technology from Forest Fire Management Victoria and information provided by NBN Co about Australia’s National Broadband Network rounded off the day of activities.