Precision Ag Needs Coordination, Funding, Say FCC Task Force Members
More than broadband disparity delays precision agriculture, said an FCC Precision Agriculture Task Force member. Many talented agriculturists, scientists and engineers work on precision ag, but “what seems to be lacking is overall coordination across all entities,” said Fifth Estate…
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Growers farmer Andy Bater. “Everyone is rowing awfully hard, but the precision agriculture boat would move faster if the oars dipped into the water at the same time.” It needs “coordination and funding at a scale seldom seen in modern times, a Manhattan Project-level effort,” he said. The task force reviewed three interim reports Wednesday, as well as recommendations from working groups on mapping and analyzing connectivity on agricultural lands, current and future connectivity demand for precision agriculture, and spurring precision ag adoption and connected-farm jobs. It discussed but didn’t plan to vote on the work of a fourth WG about speeding broadband deployment on unserved agricultural lands. With the task force one year into a two-year charter, Wednesday’s virtual meeting was a “midterm report,” with recommendations preliminary, said Chair Teddy Bekele, chief technology officer for Land O’Lakes. The task force will spend most of next year tightening and seeking synergy among recommendations, he said. Among preliminary recommendations, the connectivity WG suggested asking the FCC to include $500 million from the $9 billion 5G Fund for edge computing, private wireless systems and precision ag applications. It should also provide incentives, with accountability, for providers to cover fields and pasturelands with high-speed, low-latency wireless coverage, the subgroup said. “Getting connectivity ... to just a farmhouse is a bridge halfway on this initiative. We absolutely need to cover every acre of land,” said Connectivity WG Chair Daniel Leibfried, a technology director at John Deere. Apply the broadband serviceable location fabric to the Agriculture Department's National Agricultural Statistics Service and U.S. Geological Survey national land cover database to map coverage in cultivated land and agricultural areas, suggested the Mapping WG. Do drive testing and "ground truthing" to check coverage, it said. The subpanel will talk next year about adding a topological layer to maps, said WG Chair Michael Adelaine, South Dakota State University vice president-technology and security. “Terrain could be very impactful.”