Conference Presentation by Ian Yule, Massey University, Palmerston North
Ian Yule is Professor in Precision Agriculture at Massey University in Palmerston North where he has been working for 17 years. During that time he has worked and researched on Precision Agriculture within New Zealand and overseas.
Ian has contributed in a number of areas in cropping as well as pasture based systems and has tended to work in applied areas which have the potential to benefit farmers. He is an engineer by training and education and holds a PhD from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England where he worked before coming to New Zealand. He is also a committee member of the Precision Agriculture Association of New Zealand (PAANZ), a body recently set up to try and further the adoption of Precision Agriculture in New Zealand.
Precision Agriculture has been in existence for around 25 years and while it started as appearing to offer the total solution to our problems it hasn’t really been adopted to the full extent that it could have been. My own view is that it was too much based around soil fertility and an oversimplification of the relationship between plant nutrition and production. Farming is actually much more complex than this. However we should not lose sight of the fact that significant progress has been made and the rate of progress is increasing.
Possibly there were issues around the reliability and availability of equipment in the earlier adoption phase. Adoption surveys around the world also indicated that most growers thought of it as complex, requiring IT skills which they didn’t have and adding complexity. Academics and researchers got very excited about it but they didn’t necessarily see the added complexity and presented it as an all or nothing type of situation. This made the hurdle to adoption even larger.
In my own opinion one of the major hurdles is that precision agriculture is not a substitute for knowledge but is highly dependent upon it, and that knowledge is very particular to the farm, farmer and situation. All too often we have forgotten about the main decision maker, the farmer. Farming is a complex and risky operation and one size does not fit all. I think one of the most encouraging things is that PA might now be seen as a series of enable technologies which present some exciting opportunities to farmers and growers. They can build their farming system brick by brick, but have an overall objective in mind. It is probably correct to recognise that most have struggled with data management and turning that data into useful information.
The quality, ease of use and reliability of equipment is improving and many growers have found a direct benefit from using technology either through reduced operating costs and increased efficiency or increased output. Most farms have not reached their full potential and there are still significant opportunities to increase profitability while reducing environmental risk.
It is interesting to note that even our most progressive farmers have done completely different things in this space. It shows that they have been able to examine and measure the performance of their own farming system and identify their greatest weaknesses and address those first. PA also shows that there are many challenges ahead, both for family run farms and larger corporate farming operations.
The presentation is intended to highlight some of the strengths, weaknesses, promises and pitfalls of Precision Agriculture and perhaps offer some insights into how growers might make further progress with their own efforts.
