Farmers need to be alert, not alarmed, by Big Data

No matter how you look at it, technology and the agricultural sector go hand in hand these days, and 'big data' is destined to play an ever-increasing role.

Most tillage, fertiliser and harvesting equipment is logging data year round, and then there are the service providers on soil, nutrients, yield and environmental parameters.

Farm data got its toehold in the 1990s with the introduction of GPS guidance, yield monitors and basic software.

By 2010, IoT (Internet of Things) devices, drones and 'big data' innovations had arrived.

Today, the farm office desk is clogged with USBs of geo-referenced fixed spatial data and farmers are faced with the question of just who really is accessing the data relating to their farm.

Modern-day data grab
"There is a real big data grab going on – growers have data sitting in people's clouds, or someone's server," says precision agriculture consultant, Adrian Roles.

"Since 2015, big data has been real – it is simply an exchange of information.

"This data can be scaled up or down in the digital space – it has to be standardised as spatial data to obtain any real value.

"Don't be scared but be wary of big data."

Mr Roles, of JAMJ Precision based in Young, NSW, was a key speaker at the Central West Farming Systems precision agricultural seminar at Condobolin on June 28.

He said standardised data sets would enable the interoperability of data between international platforms, such as chemical and fertiliser companies.

At farm level, data collection should be as intensive as possible as one hectare grid resolution is no longer acceptable.

"We now need as tight a grid resolution as possible to try to achieve an 80 per cent accurate trend across the modelling," Mr Roles said.

"I'm about putting as much data in your data sets as you can because no one cares about 10 or 5ha grid resolutions."

Lack of industry standards
Mr Roles said there were no Australian industry standards when it came to big data protection.

"Farm data – it's the wild west – there is no protection out there for growers," he said.

"We do have some laws that reference it, including the Privacy Act 1988, Spam Act 2003, Telecommunications Act 1997 and Australian Privacy Principles.

"Australia should look at adopting a similar model to American Farm Bureau's Ag Data Transparent program."

Mr Roles said the industry needed to address who owned the data collected on farm – the farmer or service providers.

"There are companies out there collecting data on your farm and you have no recourse to it," he said.

"Whether that be precision ag, agronomist or contractor, you should have a data agreement to give you control of that data.

"The questions you need to ask is what information they are collecting, what control do you have over it, are they prepared to give you control back, with whom are they sharing the data with, and to notify you if there is a change in intended use.

"Also ensure you have the ability to remove that data from their system."

Mr Roles has been engaged by the state government to develop training programs, including a Certificate IV course and a Diploma in Precision Ag, and include a focus on big data.

New landscape
"What is the risk we don't do this? We will get left behind, especially with traceability," he said.

"Most companies don't care about yield data and NVDI (normalised difference vegetation index) – they want to know what was planted when and where, and what the soil nutrient levels are.

"Off that, they can do all their modelling.

"I see it as a big opportunity to empower ourselves as farmers to start levelling the playing field.

"As Australia doesn't have the internet infrastructure, it's going to be a lot of individual data transactions for these companies.

"So, individual growers will be able to negotiate with suppliers by sharing data sets.

"If we do it right, we will put a lot of power back in the hands of farmers."

Mr Roles said there were opportunities for grower groups, such as Central West Farming Systems, to start a data co-operative.

"If we could use the data sets on the 14 million hectares covered by Central West Farming Systems, it would put the power back in the growers' hands to negotiate with large companies," he said.

Mr Roles said in future, if growers could use data to prove they have a better economic, agronomic, environmental and social outcome than the district average, they may gain leverage with financial institutions and in obtaining multi-peril insurance.

"Do yourself a favour and buy a new data card every year and hold on to it," he said.

"If you are using some of these agronomic companies, start protecting yourself by having a conversation about data ownership and administration rights."