Agritech company says digital ag strategy is a good start

Though the peak body for Australia's agri-food techs welcomes the investment in digital agriculture and establishment of the National Centre for Digital Agriculture announced on Friday, AusAgritech calls for a coherent national strategy that spans all agri-food tech and includes a federal cross-departmental approach.

AusAgritech chief executive officer Tracey Martin said the new digital strategy was a good start.

"We hope this leads to greater consideration of how the private sector agri-food tech community can collaborate with the numerous government led initiatives for mutually rewarding outcomes," she said.

"For AusAgritech, success means better results with farmers via higher adoption and the integration of technology developed, implemented, and serviced by our members.

"Our goal is to build a world-class Agritech sector that contributes $20 billion to the $100B national target for agriculture and develops a $20B plus a year industry of technology exports and opportunities."

She said they would remain very optimistic about what was possible in Australia if they could get alignment between government initiatives and the private sector for agri-food tech.

"The implications for productivity, profitability and new jobs is vast, with commercial benefits right across the agri-food supply chain," she said.

Digital agriculture is just one part of the standalone agri-food tech sector, according to AusAgritech's election statement released in February.

Agri-food tech also contemporaneously crosses over into energy, water, sustainability, environment, climate, industry and emissions reduction.

Australia's world leading agri-food tech sector is on the frontline enabling on-farm and supply chain adoption of technology.

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It is the cornerstone of transforming the way we farm, how the supply chain operates, drives a world leading export reputation and is a key enabler of sustainability and climate adaptation through the development of commercial and scaled applied technology solutions.

Headlining the strategy is the announcement of a National Centre for Digital Agriculture.

In the media release published on Friday, the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment said it would work closely with key industry players including organisations such as the Australian Agritech Association.

Ms Martin said they welcome this commitment to working closely with the AusAgritech.

"Australia already has a strong agri-food tech sector encompassing leaders in the fields of remote asset management, farm management software, robotics, precision agriculture, carbon measurement and others," she said.

"These Australian innovators already have boots on the ground, working each day with Australian farmers and the broader agri-food supply chain."

"We will need to wait and see how the digital agriculture strategy will work with the breadth of the burgeoning Australian agri-food tech sector.

"As acknowledged by the government, these successful businesses should be front and centre in all strategies for agri-food tech adoption."

AusAgritech awaits the finer details of the digital agriculture strategy.

Whilst the digital agriculture strategy does not make it clear how the agriculture, innovation, regional Australia and industry portfolios would collaborate on the growth of the entire agri-food tech sector, AusAgritech is optimistic at the level of investment and commitment from the government to digital agriculture.

AusAgritech looks forward to working closely with the national centre for digital agriculture to boost the profitability of the Australian agri-food sector, create more jobs and position Australia as a leader in the agri-food tech sector.

AusAgritech is building a world-class agri-food tech sector that has the potential to add $40B per annum value accretion to the Australian economy.