[LUM#7] When digital technology takes the field
Will the future of agriculture lie in digital technology? This is the challenge the #Digitaginstitute, a multidisciplinary research structure launched in Montpellier in 2016. The aim: less energy-intensive production and farmers relieved of the most thankless tasks. A revolution in the making.
A host of sensors to manage water supply or fertilizer use, a battery of pheromone-spraying traps to guide pests away from crops, a harvest of shared data to inform decision-making, all centralized on a smartphone that has become the farmer's primary aid... Welcome to the farm of the future, a concentrate of technology at the service of better-controlled practices that are more respectful of the environment and less restrictive for farmers (Technological innovation in agriculturein Géoeconomie, 2016).
Towards a practice that's chosen, not imposed
"The aim is twofold: to improve production and to better integrate farmers into society ," explains Véronique Bellon-Maurel, Director ofIrstea's Ecotechnologies Department. " Agriculture is a very complicated business, and becoming more so all the time : technical, regulatory, administrative and commercial complexity... Add to that a level of uncertainty that is unmatched in any other business, and which is set to increase with climate change...". It's a gloomy picture, but one that digital technology could help to brighten up.
Tractor self-steering has changed the lives of many farmers ," says the director of the #DigitAg Institute. When you don't have to concentrate on following a line, you can think about other things...". The same applies to milking robots, which have enabled farmers to free up precious time for commercial activities, taking care of the herd... or family life. In short, for Véronique Bellon-Maurel, it's all about enabling farmers to invest in activities that are "either more lucrative or more fulfilling, in any case chosen rather than imposed".
Ageekculteurs
Is digital technology the salvation of a profession in crisis? The idea is not necessarily self-evident, since automation is more akin to the widely contested model of intensive agriculture. A misconception for the Irstea researcher, who on the contrary sees it as an opportunity to move towards greater frugality : "Organic farmers, for example, are those who need observation the most, because in this type of agriculture interventions are rare and must be precise and anticipated". The aim: to produce better. " Limiting the use of phytosanitary products means saving time and tractor fuel consumption, not to mention the benefits in terms of pollution and health for the farmer..." sums up the specialist (Putting agricultural equipment and digital technologies at the forefront of agroecologyin OCL vol 24, 2017).
For small-scale farmers, digital technology is also a powerful lever for breaking out of their isolation, with a growing number of "ageekculteurs" cultivating blogs and twitter accounts, and frequenting forums and other participatory financing platforms. At the end of the chain, digital technology is also transforming distribution by facilitating the link between producer and consumer: AMAPs, short distribution circuits... The result is a rebalancing of the balance of power imposed by traditional distribution players.
Young shoots and big fish
As a result of this paradigm shift, agriculture is opening up to a new, more technophile and more feminine audience. " It's a great opportunity to see the arrival of people who don't come from farming but have a different way of looking at it," says Véronique Bellon-Maurel. While almost every day sees the birth of a new application aimed at farmers, the irruption of digital technology is not without its worries, particularly with regard to the mountain of data emerging from our countryside (Data to share, value to create in the digital economyin Innovations agronomiques, INRA, 2018). "Data is now being collected with a spatial and temporal frequency never seen before. This represents great hope for extracting, thanks to smart data, models that will shed light on how crops and livestock function. But there is also the question of security. What will happen if this data is captured by monopolistic players?" asks the director of #DigitAg.
Faced with the risk of seeing agrochemists or other seed companies monopolize these databases for their own profit, there is a way out: open up the data, and thus encourage the emergence of a plurality of players (start-ups, cooperatives) rather than that of a few behemoths. An "open agriculture" that could one day enable everyone to find happiness in the meadow once again.
In Africa too, agriculture is going digital!
Is digital farming a high-tech luxury reserved for rich countries? Wrong, say researchers at the #DigitAg Institute, part of which is looking at how new technologies are being used in agriculture in developing countries. In Africa, the development of cell phones has opened up a whole new world of possibilities. Today, producers have direct access to commodity prices, reducing their dependence on traders. Farmers can also use their phones to receive recommendations from specialists and regularly updated weather forecasts. Another promising development is the use of satellite images to scan the situation of an agricultural area at a glance. This means they can assess the water and input requirements of vast areas on a day-to-day basis, without having to travel...
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