The Farmers Mart Feb-Mar 2018 - Issue 55 | Page 61

TECHNOLOGY 61
• FEB/MAR 2018
The future of farming
like all industries is
automation, but how will
it affect farm workers?
Farm works will always be
needed however the skill set may
change, turning tractor drivers
to fleet managers looking after
multiple machines, both in terms
of programming tasks but also
conducting daily maintenance.
Do you expect to see
new job roles as we
move towards an
automated industry?
Yes, for a start we need agricul-
tural engineers who are not only
specialising in mechanical design
but also have robotics capabilities,
this is at a design and maintenance
level. Farm communications infra-
structure could become a com-
plete new industry sitting between
the sensor providers, data platform
providers and the farmers.
Which emerging
technologies excite you
the most regarding how
they could be applied
to agriculture?
On a global scale 5G excites
me the most, fast and relatively
limitless data transfer will be
connecting smart machines and
sensors. Also, the power of 5G
smart phones will enable knowl-
edge transfer of best practice to
farmers all around the world, this
could improve agriculture produc-
tivity by 50%.
Would you say we’re at one
of those points in history,
especially in relation
to farming where we’ll
see massive change?
I think to the general public
farms will not visibly change,
however under the surface tech-
nology (sensing and automation)
and data will become hugely
important making the difference
between productivity and profit-
ability. Things like spot sprayers
will dramatically reduce chem-
ical bills for those who take the
plunge and invest. Captured data
trends will help forecast profita-
bly depending on decisions real
time, for those who are willing to
accept advice of AI.
How close do you
think we from a
commercially operated
hands-free farm?
A fully commercial Hands-
Free Farm is probably sometime
away, in fact we the HFH team
fully appreciate the human
touch when it comes to crop
husbandry and do not wish to
see totally autonomous com-
mercial farms. “Hands Free”
is however a great driver for
research pushing the boundaries
of possibility, so I do hope to see
a “Hands Free Farm” research
centre. Some commercial au-
tonomous farm equipment will
be seen working on farm in the
very near future amongst more
traditional methods.
Are there any downsides
to being completely
hands-free?
Agronomy is much harder
when the crop can’t be touched,
therefore we never forecast a
commercial world of hands free
farms.