A Big ID3A?
K-State's Institute for Digital Agriculture and Advanced Analytics will help lead farmers into the future
By Pat Melgares
Photo by Dan Donnert
In yonder days, the tools of agriculture included such staples as a tractor, three-wheeler, combine and feed bunk. If you really want to go way back, a trusty steed was a farmer’s best friend.
While much of that equipment still has a place on today’s farms, there is one industry-altering addition: satellites.
From a computer keyboard, or by using voice-recognition technology to ask a question on a cell phone or tablet, satellites in outer space assure that farmers have access to up-to-the-minute information that will help them adjust the way they grow crops, raise livestock or manage their financial statement.
Access to information has become so efficient that using digital technology may no longer be just optional for farmers in an industry that is being asked to feed a global population that will approach 10 billion people in the next 25 years.
At K-State, faculty and staff have formed an interdisciplinary team to make sure farmers understand the vast potential at their fingertips.
The next generation of farming
The Institute for Digital Agriculture and Advanced Analytics, or ID3A, was formed in Fall, 2023 from funds provided through K-State’s Next-Generation Strategic Plan, which outlines Pres. Richard Linton’s vision to position the university as a leading, next-generation land-grant university by the year 2030.
ID3A will study ways to pair existing technologies – sensors, robotics, GPS, maps and more – with newer technologies – artificial intelligence, satellite images, virtual reality and others – so that farmers can make more rapid and informed business decisions.
“I suspect that the future of farming will feature significant machine automation; the collection, transfer and analyses of massive volumes of on- and off-farm data; increased energy self-sufficiency and resource reuse; and realize a benefit from real-time, predictive analyses that combine to promote the well-being of farm households and rural places,” said Shawn Hutchinson, director of the Geographic Information System Spatial Analysis Laboratory at K-State.
Hutchinson is one of seven co-directors of ID3A, including Ignacio Ciampitti (agronomy), Trevor Hefley (statistics), Pascal Hitzler (computer science), Brian McCornack (entomology), Susan Metzger (Office of the President) and Ajay Sharda (biological and agricultural engineering).
“In the future, farmers will be seeking even more efficiency, and looking at ways in which technology can help them farm more acres,” said Ciampitti, noting current trends indicating larger farms owned by a shrinking number of U.S. farmers. “The only way we can become sustainable in the future is by having more technology.”
A ‘holistic’ way of farming
Digital agriculture is a move toward collecting large volumes of data to make decisions on the farm, aiding in production and reducing the farm’s environmental footprint. It differs from precision agriculture, which is focused on the farming processes. Precision agriculture is considered a subset of digital agriculture.
“For more than two decades, precision agriculture has focused on putting the right amount of product in the right place at the right time…engaging available technology, such as GPS systems or tractors with sensors,” Sharda said.
“But digital agriculture is different. Digital agriculture is taking all the data and utilizing it to extract more fundamental and advanced knowledge about what is in that field, beyond soil and variability. As a farmer, once I know all of the parameters of what is happening in my field, I can also begin to minimize my risk.”
Sharda foresees a day when volumes of data – whether gathered by research, artificial intelligence, pictures from out of space or other means – can be accessed in seconds or minutes so that a farmer knows exactly what time of year each portion of their field is most likely to be productive, or what challenges might exist at any given time.
“Digital agriculture,” he says, “gives you a more holistic approach to farming operations because you have instant and direct access to information to make decisions.”
Hutchinson adds: “The purpose of a digital culture, depending on what the problem is that it’s being applied to, is to collect and analyze a lot of data – more than we’ve ever done before – and quickly turn that data into usable, actionable information. It’s that translation or interpretation of the data that is key. For farmers, they can then make more informed decisions about what they’re doing.”
Leading in innovation
Automated processes likely will become more common on U.S. farms, but the K-State experts said digital agriculture is not a move to replacing humans. Instead, it’s one answer to the challenge of shrinking populations in rural communities, and a shrinking labor force.
“The goal isn’t to replace the human on the farm,” Hutchinson added, “but rather to help those who want to stay on the farm.”
“I feel like there is always concern when a new technology comes out; it changes our comfort zone,” Ciampitti said. “We are in this moment of movement in farming. But, as an example, if we start thinking about ways we can use artificial intelligence for a benefit, those concerns go away. Because if I’m asking AI to just give me some ideas for different types of incentives for my farm, I can get that information in seconds, rather than doing research that takes hours.”
“In all these cases, it’s still up to the farmer to check sources, make an interpretation of the information and execute the plan.”
According to Hutchinson, “we want to make producers as economically viable and sustainable as possible because when you do that, there are many additional benefits that occur, including healthier and more prosperous communities and improved environmental conditions. The type of infrastructure that it will take to pull off a future with digital agriculture means rural schools will have access to high speed Internet.”
Which technologies are best? Or equally important, which are safe? Farmers will have those questions, Ciampitti says, and it’s a founding principle of why ID3A was formed.
“We (K-State) want to be a leader in innovation, to make sure we are ready to answer farmer’s questions,” Ciampitti said. “We want to make sure that we are that unbiased source of information for them.”