Farm Show roundtable examines technology’s impact on PA agriculture

On Wednesday, robotics, artificial intelligence and augmented reality were the focus of a roundtable discussion on the future of agriculture at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. 

Lawmakers from the Pennsylvania Senate heard from commonwealth farmers and agriculture industry leaders about how technological advancements are changing the face of agriculture and received input about how the state can position itself at the forefront of an evolving agricultural sector. 

“Developments in technology and the accelerated pace of innovation create tremendous opportunities but also tremendous challenges for agriculture and for natural resource management,” said Troy Ott, the dean of Penn State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences. “I think those who effectively adopt these technologies are going to be winners in the next decades, and I think that’s something that we have to be clear on – that these technologies are going to allow us to solve some challenges that will provide our agribusinesses and farms with a competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive marketplace.” 

Cultivating the future

Wednesday’s conversation at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center examined several forward-looking efforts in agriculture across the state. These included the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s agricultural innovation grant program – funded at $10 million in the most recent state budget – and Penn State’s Technologies for Agriculture and Living Systems initiative. The latter seeks to build a framework that uses new and advanced technologies to improve food production systems and biodiversity while also enhancing environmental conversation efforts. 

Troy also highlighted the university’s commitment to plant sciences and agriculture through its PlantWorks initiative, which aims to upgrade Penn State’s plant science infrastructure. 

Panelists at Wednesday’s roundtable event pointed to several other technological advancements that showed promise for Pennsylvania agriculture.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding noted that he has seen orchard staff use drones to improve efficiency. “I’ve stood in orchards where they’re watching real-time, flying drones, counting blossoms, and the blossoms are converted to harvests, and the harvests are converted to bushels, and the bushels are converted to sales. That’s one person with one piece of technology in a single orchard flying over. It reminds me, always, that these are incredibly fascinating, technologically advanced industries.”

Ott noted that computers and digital tools, including developments in artificial intelligence, have changed how farmers and agricultural workers use different types of equipment. 

“If you asked about what are some of the exciting things on the horizon, I would say again, using these computational tools broadly under artificial intelligence that will allow us to link smart equipment to predict failures, to order parts before they break down, tools that will be what I would call decision support tools,” Ott said. “You may have heard the term digital twins. Think about owning 1,000 acres and putting into a system – the slope, the soils, the kinds of crops that you’re prepared to grow – and using AI-run models … that could make suggestions on how you should best use the land resources and the human resources.” 

Daniel Dotterer, an eighth-generation farmer who spoke at Wednesday’s hearing, told Senate lawmakers that he incorporates augmented reality tools into his farming practices. 

“Augmented reality is an overlay of holographic information on the world. So, think of your laptop computer in your glasses that you have on your face. That is really the system and the direction we’re going,” he said. “One of the great things it does is allow you to display information in a way that’s easy to understand. “One of our neighbors has a robotic milker, and I’m trying to remember how many data points they get – something like 132 different types of information.”

Weathering new challenges

With new technologies often comes new challenges, and participants in the roundtable discussion said Pennsylvania agriculture faces challenges of its own with the advent of new tech. 

Dotterer noted that farmers are facing veterinary deserts and difficulty accessing veterinary services. He also said new, high-tech agriculture tools mean those in the industry are grappling with higher equipment costs. 

Plus, Dotterer said that new technologies, like AI, will require more energy to use, meaning that as agricultural technology improves, the state’s energy demand will likely increase. 

Daniel Foy, the CEO of AgriGates, was another agriculture industry leader who provided input at Wednesday’s Farm Show hearing. Foy stressed the importance of making sure that agriculture technology is produced in Pennsylvania, and that cybersecurity solutions are available to protect the data of Pennsylvania farmers. 

“We need more Pennsylvania-produced agritech solutions that support local producers close to the farm gate. However, more is also needed in this area, and we’ve hit on cybersecurity, data and foreign ownership. Currently, 63% of all agritech comes from outside the United States, probably with 99% of animal agricultural technology coming from outside our state,” Foy said. “We need to do so much more in those regards to support our innovations in research and protect that intellectual property. We must focus on machine learning and, in the future, AI and animal agriculture, the value of data and protecting farmers’ data – which is cybersecurity.” 

However, Foy added that with new challenges in the agriculture industry come new opportunities. 

“These challenges are also opportunities for growth and maintaining Pennsylvania as an important food-producing state and agritech leader,” he said.