The transformative power of data and artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionise the farms of the future will be discussed at an annual agri-tech conference in East Anglia.
Industry leaders, farmers, innovators and researchers will gather at Newmarket Racecourse for the 2024 REAP (Realising our Economic and Agricultural Potential) Conference on November 6.
The event's central theme will consider the balance between whether cutting-edge new innovations should be used to "optimise one or manage many".
Delegates will hear how technology has helped global agriculture evolve into a "dual landscape of both vast scale and intricate detail".
With technologies now available for the precise management of individual crops and livestock, delegates will discuss the "tipping point" where these benefits could be outweighed by the broader, more general oversight of larger populations.
And the potential applications of AI to deliver "bespoke management at scale" will be the topic for keynote speaker Dr Elliott Grant.
He is a former chief executive of Mineral, a firm which set out to apply AI breakthroughs to make agriculture more sustainable and climate-resilient, before its technology was acquired by machine manufacturer John Deere earlier this year.
“I think in 20 years we will look back and be incredulous that we used the same treatment across a whole field,” said Dr Grant.
It partnered with major US berry producer Driscoll’s to develop AI tools to improve crop phenotyping, better forecast yields and optimise quality inspections.
Dr Grant said these initiatives proved the value of the synergy between human expertise and machine intelligence - as the careful combination of human intuition and AI, with each learning from the other, gave the best results.
Phil Taylor, director of ecosystem development for crop science R&D at Bayer is one of the panellists.
“As an industry, we have spent the last five years recognising that we need to work together,” he said.
"The next ten years will be about how to make the whole system sustainable and self-supporting. To achieve this, we need to find new ways of partnering.
“Across the world, there are these global innovation hotspots. The Agri-TechE ecosystem is clearly one of them, where we see opportunities for Bayer to contribute and become part of the ecosystem.”
The conference is organised by Agri-TechE, an independent membership organisation dedicated to advancing agricultural innovation and sustainability - which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
Chaired by Cambridgeshire farmer Tom Pearson, the session is an opportunity for farmers to grill researchers about their work and its relevance to the industry, while improving their understanding of the potential applications of agricultural research.
This will be followed by the event's annual Start-up Showcase, which reveals Agri-TechE’s choices of the top eight "ones to watch" for the future of farming. The line-up will be revealed on the day of the event.
And, to underline the crucial need to ensure new innovations are fit for farming in the real world, REAP 2024 will close with a review of current practices by a line-up of leading farmers who will aim to "ground-truth" the concepts from the conference and share their views for the future.
For more information and tickets see www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/civi-events/
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here