The potential economic gains for the Australian farm sector and associated supply chains arising from the adoption of decision agriculture will be estimated and recommendations made for business models and strategies to deliver decision agriculture products and services.

Decision agriculture is the analysis of digitally collected farm data along with other relevant digital datasets such as soils and environmental data to inform decision making associated with the production and supply of farm goods. The potential economic gain of decision agriculture will be estimated by determining the improvements to productivity and profitability that will be possible under a fully technologically enabled farm sector. The Centre for International Economics CIE-REGIONS general equilibrium model of the Australian economy will then be used to estimate the gains to the economy that could be achieved because of the increased productivity and profitability.

Decision agriculture will be enabled by access to appropriate data and data analytics, connectivity, clear value propositions and rules and procedures for data ownership and sharing. The contribution of these enabling functions to the economic gain achieved through decision agriculture will be measured through close consultation with other Precision to Decision (P2D) projects.

The provision of decision agriculture products and services to farmers will occur through private businesses, research agencies and government. Business models and strategies to deliver decision agriculture will differ depending on sector size, availability of commercial options and extent of integration with the processing sector amongst many other factors. A situation analysis will be performed to determine the structural factors for each farm sector involved in the P2D project that is relevant to the delivery of decision agriculture and appropriate recommendations made for suitable business models and strategies. Input will be obtained from an International consulting firm on the likely impact of the global development of digital agriculture technologies and associated business models.