In the last two weeks of March 2017, the European media platform EURACTIV released five articles on smart farming within the European agricultural sector. The full articles are bundled in the report titled ‘EU Farming Getting Smarter’ and include in-depth interviews with high-level policy-makers and industry representatives such as EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan and CEMA’s Secretary-General Ulrich Adam, presenting the latest developments in smart farming.
Smart farming hinges on e-skills and rural internet access
According to experts, “…the digitization of agriculture could help Europe address food security and environmental issues at the same time. But realizing this vision will require e-skills, proper broadband infrastructure and big data management”.
“The pressure from developments in Silicon Valley and other leading high-tech regions means that a strong effort is needed to ensure that control over data from the European agricultural sector stays in Europe” referring to the latest STOA report.
Hogan: “Data ownership should not weaken farmers’ position”
“…data integration comes with potential challenges as well as benefits: farmers are already squeezed by the greater market power of their upstream and downstream partners, so many may be wary of sharing too much information with their strong commercial rivals. It is all a matter of how we organize data ownership and access so that the position of farmers is improved and not weakened by the new technology” – Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan.
Smart farming seeks role in post-2020 CAP
“Precision farming could play a leading role in making EU agriculture more sustainable. But green NGOs claim that the concentration of food production in the hands of the agri-food industry will have catastrophic consequences”.
French Farmers seek expert advice on going digital
“In January, French farming cooperative InVivo, together with other 30 cooperatives, created a website aiming to accompany farmers in their transition to precision farming”.
Commission: Technology will make farming more transparent to consumers
“The EEB claims that precision farming’s role should remain limited and public money should instead be used to help farmers work in harmony with nature and protect the natural resources they rely on to produce safe and healthy food”.
Image credit: Mauricio Lima/Flickr
