Smart Farming: A Transdisciplinary Data Revolution for Agriculture

This is a presentation for the 1st University of Florida Data Symposium.<br><br>Major advances in knowledge and technology have transformed farming throughout history; examples include the plow, selective breeding, chemical fertilization, mechanized cultivation, and genetically modified organisms. Systems that integrate these advances are often billed as revolutions for the benefits they deliver to farmers and the food system. Yet, advancements in agriculture are only beginning to respect the collective goals of production, environment, and society. Smart farms utilize information generated from the smallest scales of microbiota and plant nutrition to the largest scales of agricultural regions and food systems to improve agricultural sustainability. Smart farming programs, such as Best Management Practices and Integrated Pest Management, encourage monitoring and application cycles that maximize the effectiveness of management and resource conservation at farm scales. Farmers are challenged to develop simple monitoring programs and rarely make use of the information long-term or wide-spread. Similar short-comings are common in agricultural research programs that evaluate a single management practice or technology through simple experiments. Smart farming, including transdisciplinary research and information technology, could be the next revolution in agriculture. The technology for smart farming is available and beginning to be adopted on farms, but the best management practices for data and information distribution lag behind. So, how do we train farmers and scientists to adopt information technologies and best data management practices to farm smart?