Mainstreaming Precision Farming

www.ilvo.vlaanderen.be

Jürgen Vangeyte

Lunch & Importance of the number 7

Audience's attention span

Minutes?

Audience is getting bored

Program a wake-up call?

What will I talk about?

• Introduce Precision Farming

• Results of the focus group – Questions

– Tasks

– Conclusions

– Recommendations

• Wrap-up/ Take home messages

Yes, there is a hughe challenge!

Precision Farming can do this

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Why Precision Farming?

• Only Precision Agriculture can optimize returns on inputs whilst potentially reducing environmental impact

• Precision Agriculture has the potential to help implement the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

• JRC upon the request of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

Why Precision Farming?

• Such methods help adapt crops to climate change and not only help grow more food but also contribute to reducing crops' water needs by 30 percent and energy costs by up to 60 percent.

• Food and Agriculture Organization (Save and Grow)

Why Precision Farming?

• Precision agriculture is one of the unexpected bright spots in a new report that examines 11 agricultural innovations.

• None of the technologies considered can address these concerns on its own, but taken in aggregate they could help improve global crop yields by up to 67 percent by 2050 while reducing food prices by nearly half

• New International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI): Food Security in a World of Natural Resource Scarcity: The Role of Agricultural Technologies

Why Precision Farming?

• Precision agriculture techniques and technologies can maximize food production, minimize environmental impact and reduce cost.

• Associate Director, IBM Research Ulisses Mello

Why Precision Farming?

• Precision Agriculture Finally Taking Root?

Supported by list of some major investments venture capital fund focused on food and agricultural technology companies

• Forbes, October 2014

What is Precision Agriculture (NOT)?

• The right treatment of crops and livestock at the right time and smallest scale possible (up to treatment of individual plants or animals)

– Seamless integration of different technologies and intelligence (data, decision algorithms, software)

– Optimization of treatments at the lowest scale possible will improve yields and resource efficiency in agri-food chains, so reducing the agricultural footprint

• Technology for PF has become available to farmers during the last decades – FMIS – Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) – Various sensors

• Technology development stage • Precision Farming 1.0

• 65% of the arable farmers used in 2013 GNSS technology in crop management

What is Precision Agriculture (NOT)?

Controlled Traffic Farming

Cooperation/modularity

Robots

Scouting

Labor intensive/repetitive

• De veehouder

36%

19%

13%

5%

5%

2%

2%

2% 2%

2%

So ….

Precision Farming as

it is will solve everything?

NO…

Not yet …

Current situation

• “A lot of good sensors but little good information for the farmers”

• Visual interpretation and decision making still done by the farmer

• Individual and historic

information on animals

and land that is not integrated

• Large volumes of data need to be standardised, processed and integrated using metadata analysis, to generate useful input for decision-support systems

How to organise the data capture and processing to

mainstream the application of precision farming for an

optimisation of inputs and yield?

Try to identify the main reasons behind the current lack of

adoption, and identifying the key barriers to the implementation of Precision Farming on European

farms.

EIP Focus Group

Bahr, Claudia Germany Forristal, Dermot Ireland Fountas, Spyros Greece Gil, Emilio Spain Grenier, Gilbert France Hoerfarter, Rita Denmark Jonsson, Anders Sweden Jung, András Hungary Lokhorst, Kees Netherlands Mazur, Piotr Poland Mertens, Kristof Belgium Mottram, Toby United Kingdom Nacke, Eberhard Germany Paree, Peter Netherlands Pastell, Matti Finland Pickel, Peter Germany Sileikyte, Egle Lithuania van den Borne, Jacob Netherlands Vangeyte, Jürgen Belgium EIP-AGRI coordinating experts Kempenaar, Corne Zarco-Tejada, Pablo EIP-AGRI Service point Debergh, Sophie Stubbe, Frank Gaetje, Emilie

5 TASKS

• Identifying and assessing the different systems and use of data handling

• Looking where compatibility issues need to be resolved

• Collecting existing/potential solutions – to process and integrate large data volumes from sensors into

user-friendly FMIS

– to integrating precision farming systems into small and medium-sized holdings

• Listing fail factors that limit the use of techniques/systems by farmers and how to address these factors as well as explore the role of innovation and knowledge transfer in addressing these fail factors

First: The FG Experts were asked to identify constraints and opportunities for each theme and vote on its importance

High importance > 25 votes

• How to reach farmers?

• Cost/benefit for farmer/business of PF (including business models)

• Compatibility of PF data infrastructure Processing large volumes of date

• User friendly FMIS

• Ownership of the data

16-25 votes: lower importance

• Strategy for PF systems in SM holdings

• Support for advisors

• Data storage and sharing

• Technical solutions

• Research needs

< 16 votes: lowest importance • Innovative incentives • Dissemination • Training for farmers • Traceability • Training of SM farm holdings • Farmers’ attitude • Public acceptance: transparency • Retail • Role of media and PR • Complexity • Infrastructure • Lack of legal framework

7 topics From mini-papers to EIP-

report

• Challenge in a one-liner • Innovations: what areas need new solutions?

Systems outside the farm world that could be transferred/adapted?

• What research/innovation is needed to work towards a solution?

• Knowledge: is there new knowledge necessary to provide the innovation

• Operational groups: suggestions on topics for OGs

• Dissemination: what can be done to spread these solutions?

Why would farmers take up precision farming or not?

• Overcome

– Investment risk

– Perceived complexity (lack of knowledge)

– Discover the specific benefits for the individual farmer

• Active farmers involvement in development of PF tools – Solutions focused on real farming problems and

challenges for the majority of farmers – Require testing in different real farm situations

• Farmers themselves must drive the demonstration of appropriate technology

• Training in Precision Farming technologies for farmers

• Collaborative technology transfer initiative is required focus on farmers’ needs – Farmers – Researchers – Advisers – Technology providers

Support for advisers • (Focus on independent) advisers should

understand PF so they can provide appropriate advice to farmers

• Advisers need appropriate analytical support tools and focused training packages.

– Development of specific data analysis tools with special emphasis on cost-benefits

• Farm advisers will need to connect all members of the collaborative knowledge transfer initiative

Cost-benefit analysis of PF

• The benefit to the farmer is not always clear (especially in small and medium sized farms)

• Some farmers fear that PF will bring additional costs and complexities

• Stakeholders often lack the tools to calculate potential profits and benefits

– Unclear business models of PF

– Associated costs and benefits

• Reliable PF calculator tools that take into account geographic regions and socio-economic variability across Europe

• Validated PF decision-support also for farm advisers and farmer trainings

Strategy for PF in small and medium-sized farms

• PF services could be offered – by larger neighbouring farmers at lower cost – by companies as a service – via other business models.

• PF tools designed for small and medium-sized farms, with the requirements of being easy to use, affordable and robust

• Regional training and awareness for successfully reaching advisers and small and medium-sized farms: customized advisory services need to be developed.

Technical solutions

• Apply agricultural knowledge in closed-loop control systems

• Solutions need to be smarter and integrated to support farmers in their decision-making

CATTLE

38

‘SMART =Support dairy farmer in individual animal management’

(Kees De Koning, SUMMILK 2011)

• Introduction and further development of

– i) Electric drives to facilitate precise electronic control of equipment and implements

• Introduction and further development of

– ii) Internet of Things to facilitate machine and processor communication

• Introduction and further development of

iii) Nanotechnology and biosensors

• Introduction and further development of

– iv) Drones and autonomous platforms (monitoring)

Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences

Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences

Camera

Image Analyses Map

Site Specific Weed Management

Rasmussen et al. 2013

Department of Plant and Environment

Data management & compatibility

• Compatibility issues limiting the development of technology – Limited data infrastructures on farms not designed for data

sharing – Extensive brand protection by large companies (vendor lock-in) – Poor compliance with standards for software development and

data formats

• Urgently needed to bring PF to the next level: – Sharing and open-data sources – (Business models for) data management, – Interconnectivity strategies

Research to boost innovation and knowledge transfer in PF

• Innovation and ‘regional’ diversification are key to success. Research in itself is needed as a driving force of innovation

• More applied and business driven research, involving farmers, advisers and supply chain partners, is needed

• Utility of many PF applications not fully demonstrated • Missing cost/benefit analysis • Lack of user-relevant research at both basic and applied levels • Lack of resources that are necessary for business-driven innovation

to enable a market uptake. • PF needs collaboration of stakeholders in order to achieve

widespread EU farm adoption: Collaborative technology transfer initiative

• Data compatibility and handling are important issues • Technology development will stimulate interactive innovation • Operational Groups can stimulate and help spread the innovations

Thank you-Questions?

jurgen.vangeyte@ilvo.vlaanderen.be