NBN makes our smart farmers even smarter – TFGA

Tasmanian farmers have gained an enormous head start with the early roll-out of NBN in the state; they are well ahead of the rest of the country, the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TFGA) said today.

TFGA chief executive Jan Davis was commenting on today’s flick of the NBN switch to connect more than 4300 premises in Launceston and another 19 rural communities across the state. It moves Tasmania ever closer to becoming the first state to be fully connected by the end of 2015 and to have the fixed wireless network completed by the end of 2014.

The 20 rural communities now able to be connected to the fixed wireless network comprise 6000 farms, homes and businesses from Yolla, Ridgley and Natone in the north-west to Huonville and Cygnet in the south and George Town in the north.

“The NBN revolutionises farming like no other industry,” Ms Davis said. “It starts from the most efficient use of our soil, water and climate and permeates through every level of the business through packaging, processing, marketing and, on the return journey, financial services and education back to the farmhouse.

“There is no tyranny of distance – apart from freight,” she said.

Ms Davis said the NBN was of particular significance to Tasmania because it facilitated the Sensing Tasmania (Sense-T) network of sensors that combine with existing mapping data to give a digital view of the economy, with particular application to agriculture, aquaculture, viticulture and water management.

Ms Davis said a new CSIRO report, Smart Farming, had found that the national broadband network and mobile sensor technologies like Sense-T could transform the Australian agribusiness sector through the use of technologies such as cloud computing to share information, special farming apps and sensors that track pasture vegetation, soil moisture, livestock movements and farm equipment.

“But the report also noted that farmers have been a bit lax in adopting emerging communications technologies, for example making full use of Internet in the home and smartphone applications,” Ms Davis said.

“There are explanations for that: the lack of universal availability, cost, capability and reliability, but a recent survey into information technlogy uptake and usage by TFGA members indicates that farmers here who are able to get reliable access are using the Internet for a variety of business and social activities. More than one-third of respondents are already using tablet technology to access the Internet to enhance their farming business.

“With the NBN roll-out in Tasmania we open the door to precision farming, with farmers able to access accurate information on their crop performance. The world is our oyster,” Ms Davis said.