THE FUTURE for Australian agriculture is bright but it needs to look beyond its own backyard: this was the message from futurist Paul Higgins, keynote speaker at the Australian Fodder Industry Association national conference in Adelaide this week.
The conference, held from August 4 to 6, attracted more than 250 delegates from across Australia.
"I strongly believe we are at the stage where a new level of value is being generated by agriculture," Mr Higgins said.
"But if you sit on your laurels and think 'just because I own land and water I can do what I've always done', then the scenario will be the same we've seen for the last 30 to 40 years."
He established Emergent Futures Pty Ltd as a consultant company, combining his long experience in business with his training as a futurist.
Mr Higgins said you need only look at the rate of technological changes, such as the number of people moving from PC to tablets, to see how fast things were moving.
"You need to do things differently to be profitable in the future," he said.
Mr Higgins said a new wave of technology based value creation was hitting agriculture and would continue to do so.
He said farmers needed to think through ways to capture the value that would be created.
"We're seeing a lot of food vendors being created by crowd funding," Mr Higgins said.
"The collection of money through crowd-funding was not there 10 years ago. There's also peer-to-peer lending, without banks in the funding model.
"You need to be involved in networks - otherwise you'll get left behind."
Mr Higgins said some of the major advances to benefit farmers included the following:
Aerial drones: There are now moving rapidly into agriculture. Applications include mapping of paddocks and monitoring of livestock down to the analysis of individual leaves and plants for looking at nutrient stress and disease.
Data collection: An app called Pressure.net can be downloaded on Android smartphones to send barometric pressure readings back to home base.
The aim is to have a network of real-time data they can map to weather events to improve local forecasts.
Monsanto has bought a weather data company called Climate Corporation for US$930 million, with a view to using their data science systems to provide products to farmers.
Virtual reality skills: Facebook has bought the Occulus Rift company to incorporate virtual reality systems into gaming but the applications for skills training and transfer are just as large.
"Augmented reality is being used to help military mechanics fix vehicles," Mr Higgins said.
Combined with real-time language translations, these changes form the basis for connections to a huge community that farmers can communicate with to solve problems, transfer skills and innovate.
Social media technologies: Mr Higgins said social media can link farmers with scientists, software engineers, other farmers and 3D printing specialists to share information, experience and skills.
3D printing: This technology is now in the hands of thousands of people around the world. High-end 3D systems are capable of printing metal prototypes to allow part replacement and experimentation with novel approaches to machinery.
Mr Higgins urged farmers to look beyond their own backyard for new ideas.
* Full report in Stock Journal, August 7, 2014 issue.
Paula Thompson
Stock Journal's markets editor.
Stock Journal's markets editor.
