Current status of and future opportunities for digital agriculture in Australia

Abstract

In Australia, digital agriculture is considered immature and its adoption ad hoc, despite a relatively advanced technology innovation sector. In this review, we focus on the technical, governance and social factors of digital adoption that have created a disconnect between technology development and the end user community (farmers and their advisors). Using examples that reflect both successes and barriers in Australian agriculture, we first explore the current enabling technologies and processes, and then we highlight some of the key socio-technical factors that explain why digital agriculture is immature and ad hoc. Pronounced issues include fragmentation of the innovation system (and digital tools), and a lack of enabling legislation and policy to support technology deployment. To overcome such issues and increase adoption, clear value propositions for change are necessary. These value propositions are influenced by the perceptions and aspirations of individuals, the delivery of digitally-enabled processes and the supporting legislative, policy and educational structures, better use/conversion of data generated through technology applications to knowledge for supporting decision making, and the suitability of the technology. Agronomists and early adopter farmers will play a significant role in closing the technology-end user gap, and will need support and training from technology service providers, government bodies and peer-networks. Ultimately, practice change will only be achieved through mutual understanding, ownership and trust. This will occur when farmers and their advisors are an integral part of the entire digital innovation system.

Tracking the diverse pathways to value for digital agriculture

“…Lawes et al (2023) reports the enabling effects of a vertically integrated data supply chain in Australian grains. Hansen et al (2023) identifies the need for a digital curriculum to achieve broader adoption by these adopters.…”

“…Hansen et al . (2023) identifies the need for a digital curriculum to achieve broader adoption by these adopters.…”

“…Examples of this class are cited in India (Goswami et al . 2023), Australia (Hansen et al . 2023) and Latin America (Puntel et al .…”

“…2023). The process is also implicit in the public-private partnerships reported for Australia (Hansen et al . 2023; Lawes et al .…”

Digital technologies in local agri-food systems: Opportunities for a more interoperable digital farmgate sector

“…In the case of agriculture, a lack of interoperability between hardware or software platforms means technology users (e.g., farmers), become locked-in to a user-agreement with a company. This poses a technical challenge to farmers, making business management more timeconsuming and inefficient (Bahlo et al, 2019;Hansen et al, 2021). Limited interoperability is not just a technical challenge but a political issue, as farmers have decreased ability or agency over what tools they use or what is done with their data (see e.g., Rotz et al, 2019a).…”