After consulting with colleagues at our Ministries, we would like to put the following comments forward:
- Developing digital approaches in agriculture is something we are pursuing in the UK through Transforming Food Production and with industry through Food and Drink Sector Council
- Digital solutions and technological innovations in agriculture will be a key part of the solution to feeding a growing global population. They can unlock the potential of farming by improving productivity as well as using resources more sustainably and reducing environmental impact. For example, achieving ‘end to end supply chains’: applying digital/artificial intelligence/ block chain approaches/data embedded bar codes to drive productivity, efficiency and traceability through the entire supply chain, provide sustainability and nutritional data to consumers and reduce food waste.
- We will want to ensure that direction of travel and any international systems international systems draw on the systems and progress we are making in this area, and that such developments are both secure and compliant with relevant data protection regulations.
- However, the devil will be in the detail, and in the ability to resource the council. Research by DAI for USAID looking at 10 agri-tech/digital ‘hubs/platforms’ found that a key driver of success and sustainability is having the significant resources in place to actively curate content, and match the right content to different groups. One of their messages was that hubs that rely on self-reporting don’t last.
Neil Fourie