Overview

Agriculture is one of the oldest industries and one that opens up a world of opportunities when it comes to progression through technology. According to Investment NSW, Agricultural technology, or Agtech, is predicted to become Australia’s next $100 billion industry by 2030. 

The adoption of these emerging and sophisticated technologies in Australian agriculture is expanding at a rapid rate, unlocking the potential for businesses to increase efficiency, profit and safety. Technology acts as an enabler for the improvement of a wide range of agricultural processes in the realms of finance, farm management, vehicle operation tracking, remote monitoring, WHS & HR. 

Australia is at the forefront of using technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) to increase agricultural productivity. By harnessing the vast power of this technology, the agricultural industry as a whole must embrace the digitisation of processes enabled by connectivity. Although, agriculture remains behind in adoption in contrast to many other global industries. As the demand for food grows and environmental battles ensue, digital transformation is necessary to stimulate the next generation of success and efficiency within agriculture.

How technology assists this industry

It’s no secret of the availability of innovative, purpose-built technologies available to transform the agriculture industry – the list is almost endless. Digitisation impacts almost all aspects of the supply chain of broad-scale agriculture – from IoT-based sensors & tracking to improve efficiency in crop production, to data-driven Government initiatives (like the Australian Government’s Farming Together Program) designed to support the successful roll-out of training, funding and support for farmers.

Further to this, with an increased emphasis on sustainability in innovation, organisations are increasingly benefitting from using Machine Learning datasets to increase visibility and present actionable insights. This gives farmers greater control in implementing impactful changes in their harvesting – from planting, fertilising and watering more thoughtfully and efficiently.

In relation to profitability, by leveraging the power of SAP on AWS’ powerful data capture capability, customers achieve powerful insights to drive informed decision making, facilitate the discovery of new sources of revenue and enable cost reduction of up to 85%.

Monitoring & Equipment Management 

By leveraging the power of AWS, a range of opportunities exist in regard to managing and monitoring equipment. As an increasing amount of business owners in the agriculture industry report concerns around the cost of production and skill shortages, automation at scale provides the ability for a single staff member to manage a fleet of equipment. ‘Connected farms’ operate efficiently by utilising a range of solutions including geofences, live tracking and predictive maintenance. 

Farming by Drone

A recent study reported that by using drone-based inspection for farms instead of traditional rope-based inspection, operational costs can be reduced by up to 70% and further decrease revenue lost due to downtime by up to 90%. By utilising AWS serverless technologies, the operational cost reduction lies within leveraging AWS’ economies of scale and powerful automation tools to pay less, and only pay for resources you’re actually using. Furthermore, precision agriculture can also benefit immensely from IoT technology implementation – read more about it here. 

Our Capability 

With 10+ years of experience servicing a range of customers, Experience Digital have a deep understanding and holistic view of the challenges experienced and the vast potential that digital technologies hold in driving the complete transformation of industries. Our collaborative approach to project management ensures thorough comprehension of issues and opportunities. 

Additionally, the AWS Registery of Open Data holds over 200+ years of global weather datasets, available to fuel farmers with the knowledge they need to optimise their breeding, crop and fertilisation processes. This offers an array of opportunities in regards to driving cost optimisation and operational improvement, to further progress the industry as a whole. 

How we can help

After undertaking a highly competitive tender process, Experience Digital was chosen to assist the Australian Government with the national roll-out of their Farming Together Program. Through developing and delivering an extensive web platform build with a core focus on functionality and design within a short 12-week timeframe, Experience Digital successfully met a range of positive outcomes as a result.

As a result of our work, the platform empowered 28,500 farmers and primary agriculture producers alike to access over $2.5 million worth of training and education and access government reimbursement online nationally. Further to this, 57 new co-operatives were developed and 200+ existing cooperatives were supported. You can read more about it here.

When working with customers in the Agricultural industry, our ultimate goal is to enable and empower farmers and stakeholders in the sector to drive future sustainable, cost-saving outcomes.

Whether you’re already on the journey to digital transformation through technological transformation, or really don’t know where to start, we’re here to help. 

Reach out today to book your discovery call to discuss how we can optimise your organisation, leveraging world-class services and curated funding programs to get you where you need to be. Book your free discovery call now.