Limited uptake of sensor technology makes no cents

Agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank recently published its report, Does sensor adoption make cents?, drawing on insights from 1000 farmers across Australia. The report reveals that despite the wide availability of sensor technology and its potential to improve profitability for Australian farms, uptake of the technology is still modest.

Rabobank questioned farmers across a wide range of regions, production sectors and operation sizes and found less than 23 per cent were using sensor technology, which includes drones, moisture probes and irrigation monitors.

The survey also found that not only was farmer uptake of this type of digital technology limited, but less than 70 per cent of those currently using the technology were applying the sensor-generated data to support their farm decision-making.

"This clearly demonstrates the gap that exists between collecting the data and applying it to assist with farm management decision-making," says Rabobank agricultural analyst and report author, Wesley Lefroy.

Disappointingly, fewer farmers are converting the data into profit, with the less than 40 per cent identifying an improvement in profitability from the use of sensor technology. The survey also reveals the uptake is higher amongst larger farm businesses with incomes above $1m.

Interestingly, the adoption rate varied across commodity sectors, with the highest rate of sensor adoption observed in the cotton industry (at 78 per cent) followed by the grains sector (at 48 per cent). The sectors with the lowest adoption rates were in beef (at 10 per cent) and sheep (at 12 per cent).

Lefroy believes there are clearly barriers to adoption that are holding back the farm sector from embracing sensor technology.

"For many, the value proposition (or return on investment) for many sensor technologies simply isn't articulated clearly enough for farmers to determine if they can generate a profit from it," he says.

He believes farmers need to fully understand how to use the data and generate profit from it to effectively 'close the gap'.

"At the farm gate, there needs to be an increased emphasis on having adequate technological resources," he says.

"This goes beyond software and hardware management, as farmers also need to have the skills to analyse the data. But for farmers to make this investment, in both time and money, the value proposition of using this technology needs to improve."

With all of this in mind, perhaps tech companies could play a greater role in providing after-sales service to ensure farmers can easily put the data to good use.