Primary industries make last call for contributions to annual AgTech survey
For the second year, PIRSA are calling upon South Australian farmers and businesses involved in primary industries, research, or agricultural technologies to contribute to an AgTech survey to better understand how farmers view technology in agriculture.
The 2021 AgTech survey provides a snapshot of the opportunities and barriers to AgTech adoption on South Australian farms.
The National Farmers’ Federation’s set the goal to grow the Australian agriculture industry to $100 billion by 2030 and the AgTech industry could be the key to unlock an estimated $2.6 billion per annum.
The State Government has established an investment of $7.6 million over the next four years to drive this relationship.
Last year the survey results contributed to the creation of the state’s first AgTech Strategic Plan, an economic outline for increasing productivity and profitability for South Australia’s primary industries.
The 2021 survey will build upon the feedback of last year to identify key barriers and to further understand how to assist primary producers in the uptake of AgTech in the state.
Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development David Basham said technology offers enormous growth opportunities in this sector.
“South Australia aims to be a national leader in AgTech through a collaborative and cohesive approach with initiatives such as an AgTech Strategic Plan, AgTech Demonstration Farms, AdvanceAg and AgTech Start-Up Hubs facilitated on the advice of the AgTech Advisory Group,” he said.
“We want to hear from as many farmers as possible through this survey, as well as businesses involved in the AgTech supply chain.”
Independent State Chair of the AgTech Advisory Group, Dr Leanna Read said that South Australia is leading the way in on-farm AgTech and she is looking forward to having comparative data from this survey for the first time.
“We are implementing a number of people we call intermediaries that will help connect industry producers and developers, which I think will be extremely important because what works is people talking to people. This survey will be very helpful for assisting in that,” she said.
“Something that the advisory wants to achieve very soon is the creation of something called the AgTech directory of companies and research organisations focussed firstly here in South Australia, to identify what are the expertise and the resources that we have here.”
Last year’s survey saw more than 600 primary producers, advisors, developers and researchers provide feedback and found that barriers to uptake of AgTech included its expense and ease of use compared to the outcome for farmers.
These barriers became the key challenges the AgTech 2020 Strategic Plan aims to overcome.
The survey closes September 23, to have your input in the 2021 AgTech survey visit pir.sa.gov.au/agtech.
