The university and the research centre have announced they will partner to build the Global Digital Farm, Australia’s first fully-automated commercial farm, which will demonstrate the future of farming through robotics and artificial intelligence, and by creating new sustainability and carbon models to drive improvements in farming practice.
The project will be located at agrisciences, research and business park AgriPark’s 1900 ha farm at the university's Wagga campus, which is operated as a commercial enterprise and incorporates a range of broadacre crops (wheat, canola, barley) as well as a vineyard, cattle and sheep.
The requisite data, telecommunication and other digital infrastructure will be developed and built during the next three years.
Charles Sturt University Professor of Food Sustainability Niall Blair said the GDF would be a commercial operation, educational facility and community outreach facility rolled into one.
“This ambitious and unique project will arm Australia’s primary industries workforce with knowledge and technology in crucial fields like data analytics, geospatial mapping, remote sensing, machine learning and cybersecurity,” Prof Blair said.
Food Agility Co-operative Research Centre chief executive officer Richard Norton said the reality of ‘hands-free’ farming was closer than many realised and would be accelerated by the development and dissemination of technology produced by the GDF.
“Full automation is not a distant concept, there are already mines in the Pilbara operated entirely through automation,” Mr Norton said.
“It won’t be too many years before technology will take farmers out of the field and immerse them in the world of robotics, automation and artificial intelligence.
“Food Agility, Charles Sturt University and the Riverina will be at the forefront of that transformation in Australia, courtesy of the Global Digital Farm.”
The GDF will develop and operate fully autonomous machinery including robotic tractors, harvesters, survey equipment and drones, use artificial intelligence to inform management decisions around sowing, dressing and harvesting, a state-of-the-art cyber-secure environment establishing best practice management of the emerging cybersecurity risks in food production, new sensor technologies measuring the interactions between plants, soils and animals, evidence-based sustainability practices and models and carbon management and measurement models.
The GDF will be spearheaded by Food Agility chief scientist Professor David Lamb, an early pioneer and leading Australian expert in precision and digital agriculture.
