Welcome to the brave new world of farming
A technological revolution is promising to bring an unheard-of efficiency to farming. Lee Waters AM looks at the world of precision agriculture
LATE last month the Assembly debated a topic that could be easily dismissed as a bit obscure – the issue of precision agriculture. But farmers across Wales already know that the practical implications of this agenda are huge.
Precision agriculture is about innovation, productivity, software and skills. This is not some abstruse tech project – it goes to the heart of some of the most pressing challenges we face, such as austerity, food security and climate change.
It is one of the so-called industries of the future – spurred by what is widely agreed to be the fourth industrial revolution. The first industrial revolution was brought about through our ability to harness steam power; the second by our capacity to generate electrical power, driving mass production; and the third industrial revolution was prompted by the development of electronics and computers.
This fourth industrial revolution takes the digital revolution to the next level – applying technological innovation to physical and biological systems.
Among the many industries being disrupted by the speed and scope of the fourth industrial revolution is farming.
We are generating, capturing, storing and processing data at speeds never before witnessed. Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, once claimed that every two days we now generate the same quantity of information as that created between the dawn of time and the year 2003.
And experts reckon that the total amount of data being captured and stored by industry globally is doubling every 14 or 15 months.
Precision agriculture is at the vanguard of this data revolution. It is a rapidly developing area where information is being applied to food production and land cultivation, to dramatically improve productivity and reduce harm to the environment.
In arable farming, for example, this approach enables farmers to gather a wealth of real-time information – water and nitrogen levels, air quality, disease – data which isn’t just specific to each farm or acre, but to each square inch of our farmland.
Using this information, algorithms can tell the farmer exactly what that square inch of land needs and when – with pinpoint precision – to produce the maximum possible yield.
At a time when we’re facing a future of food and water shortages across the world, as well as a changing climate, this approach to food production and land cultivation can dramatically improve productivity (and farmers’ incomes) as well as reduce harm to the environment.
There are pockets of this innovation across Wales. In the Assembly debate I drew on the work being done by Coleg Sir Gar in Carmarthenshire.
At their farm at Gelli Aur near Llandeilo, they have enjoyed significant efficiencies in milk production – maximising the use of grass and minimising the input of expensive feed. They use satellite imagery to measure field sizes and allocate grazing allowance to their herds.
Field grass growth data is measured weekly by plate meters, recorded on a smartphone app and synchronised to a web-based recording program.
They’re also trialling satellite navigation in experiments with precision fertiliser application.
And the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth University has been involved in cutting-edge developments in forage grasses. It may sound a little remote until the practical ramifications of this research become clear.
These grasses have demonstrated exciting promise in flood mitigation – something which has been on a lot of our minds this autumn.
But we haven’t begun to scratch the surface of the potential of precision agriculture for Wales.
At a recent public workshop I held in Llanelli on developing a jobs blueprint for my constituency, there was a consensus that we need greater ambition for the area if we are to withstand impending economic storms.
And precision agriculture presents us with a prime opportunity to demonstrate this ambition – not just in my constituency, but across Wales.
One of the industries that will likely bear the brunt of Brexit is our food production and manufacturing industries – the removal of the CAP, and the likely imposition of export tariffs will hit our farmers hard.
We need to prepare for this and to find new, imaginative, innovative means to drive growth in this critical sector. A sector that quite literally puts food on our tables.
Recently I helped secure crossparty support in the Assembly for the Welsh Government to develop a strategy that will put Wales at the forefront of the development of precision agriculture. This is our opportunity to use technological innovation to re-imagine our Welsh food economy, all while strengthening our resilience to some of the biggest global challenges we face.
We must seize it or we will be left behind.