SCI/TECH/DEV/MAC.

Data increases agricultural productivity

The aim is to help the industry improve the management and interpretation of agridata for commercial benefit. Agriculture is one of the most data-rich industries and being able to act effectively on timely information can have a significant impact on productivity.

Understanding the impact of a new variety or bio-technology requires the collection and interpretation of relevant data. Likewise, incremental improvements in commercial production can only be quantified by meaningful data collection, management and interpretation. Underinvestment in data technology will inherently limit the impact of initiatives striving to improve agriculture.

The SIG is an opportunity for growers and producers to develop confidence in how to utilise their data and for data service providers to understand where they can deliver maximum benefit to their users. For example in the potato sector, data on crop agronomy and meteorology is required for yield forecasting.

The commercial yield of a crop is determined by the gross yield, tuber size distribution and crop quality. In-season yield forecasting models provide valuable insight into final yields which can then be used for adjusting procurement and factory operational plans.

However, accumulating the required data across a large portfolio of geographically distributed crops is challenging. Development of tools such as NIAB-CUF’s CanopyCheck are streamlining the data collection process, but much more work is needed in this area.

Source: fstjournal.org

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