The move towards Smart Farming – the case of the UK

Agriculture is very important for the UK economy. The whole agrifood market is worth £96 billion per annum, or 7% of GDP. The sector employs 3.8 million people. Food and drink remains the UK’s biggest manufacturing sector, bigger than cars and aerospace combined.

Agri-tech embraces the Internet of Things vision

The use of technology in farming has grown dramatically over the past few years, and growing and rearing food has become reliant on technologies in ever more steps in the production process.  Some milking parlours for example have become more like industrial assembly lines, with cows being fed and milked automatically in their sheds. Large combine harvesters use GPS technology to automatically manage their movements, and even measure crop yield maps that farmers can examine on their terminals. A robotic machine can selectively destroy weeds in between the rows of crops, reducing the need to apply costly weedkillers, at the same time addressing public disquiet about the use of chemicals on food.

Farm management systems collect large amounts of data, much of which has still to find a use. Complementary to this data, sensor based precision technologies have been finding uses in several areas of farming – arable, livestock, even fish farming. At the back office end, clever analytics must make sense of all the data collected from different sources. The ultimate IoT aim is to enable data collected to be integrated and shared, affording greater insight and enriching decision making. IoT developments in other ‘smart’ industries could supply lessons and propose solutions for the industry.

Sensors can in theory be built to detect almost any parameter such as temperature, humidity, pressure, even specific chemical substances. For example, sensors using imaging technology are being used in the intelligent irrigation and ‘fertigation’ of valuable berry crops.

Likewise, the application of sensor based technologies is making inroads in the food delivery chain, where the food leaves the farm gate to be processed, packed and transported on its way to the retailer. An example is the case of cold chain logistics and refrigerated vehicle monitoring. Here M2M based systems not only capture real-time remote data from temperature monitoring devices and raise alarms if temperatures deviate from set limits, but also provide proof to customers of compliance to the strict rules that govern the supply of foodstuffs to consumers.

The technological push on the UK agriculture policy

The UK government has recognised the need for a transformative change in agriculture, brought about through new precision engineering technologies. It is encouraging the adoption of technology into several areas of the industry through a number of initiatives. These include:

The Knowledge Transfer Network was created by the UK government under its Innovate UK initiative. It brings together business, entrepreneurs, academics and funders to develop new products, processes and services under a range of specialist industries. The Biosciences network aims to drive the conversion of the UK’s bioscience knowledge into innovative agricultural, food and industrial bioscience products and processes.

The Agri-Tech Catalyst and the Launch of Centres for Agricultural Innovation. In 2014 the government launched the £70 million Agri-Tech Catalyst which aimed to support investment and innovation in this sector. In addition, the government has committed to invest £90 million, which is to be co-invested with industry, over five years to establish a number of Centres for Agricultural Innovation. The centres will be hubs for collaboration and innovation between industry and higher education in order to kick start the partnerships needed to develop world leading enhancements in the UK agri-tech sector. As of October 2015 the first centre on agrimetrics has been commissioned, and three other proposals are under final negotiations.

Entrepreneurship in agri-tech

The government is also encouraging the creation of new entrepreneur led start-ups, to commercialise new ideas and discoveries. In addition to that, the attention of investors in agri-food technologies and the entrepreneurial spirit of some important agricultural academic environments such as Harper Adams are strongly promoting entrepreneurship in agri-tech. Agri-tech start-ups such as Quickbird, Azotic, Agrivi are nourishing the sector with cutting-edge technology-based ideas. Incubators and networks of excellence such as Agri-tech East and Farm491 are creating the right conditions for start-ups to flourish. We are at the beginning of a long story in agri-tech entrepreneurship.

The Future is Smart Farming

The Centres for Agricultural Innovation are defining the direction of the future of the agri-tech sector. The first centre on agri-metrics will focus on data and data analytics, the fundamental element of the smart farming vision. Robotics will become increasingly important bringing into the farm autonomous farming vehicle – large and small, autonomous milking systems and picking robots specialised in various areas of horticulture. There will also be an increasing attention around human-machine interface on vehicles and on the ground, also through the use of wearable technologies. The UK is also putting major efforts in precision livestock farming, most probably, the focus of another centre for agricultural innovation. This evolution needs to come hand in hand with new skills coming into the farm and a strong digital culture that could also favourite the return of young people in agriculture, phenomenon that is already partially happening.

This journey is not easy because of the nature of the agricultural activities, but essential for the agricultural sector. As discussed, there is a wide commitment from various stakeholders and the Internet of Things community can have an important role. In order to that, Internet of Things companies have to strongly engage the agri-tech community through strategic partnerships. Agriculture is not a niche market, but a not well explored land of IoT opportunities.

By Therese Cory, senior analyst, and Saverio Romeo, principal analyst at Beecham Research