The Australian Farm Institute (AFI) held the Harvesting the Benefits of Digital Agriculture conference at the Crown Promenade Melbourne on the 15th and 16th of June 2017. With support from gold partners, PwC, and bronze partners, Myriota, SST Software, Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC), Geosys, Monsanto, National Narrowband Network Company, DiscoveryAg, Rezare Systems and ICT International, the conference was a great success, attracting over 300 delegate registrations and extensive media coverage from The Australian, ABC Landline, Australian Financial Review, The Weekly Times, ABC Rural, and Stock and Land/ Fairfax Rural.

The conference built on the themes explored in AFI’s 2016 Digital Disruption in Agriculture conference, which examined the potential for digital technologies to change farm production practices and inform decision-making through accumulation and analysis of vast amounts of data. This year’s Harvesting the Benefits of Digital Agriculture conference went beyond individual applications of technology to explore the ways that entire agricultural supply chains, business systems and government and market compliance systems could be disrupted and changed by digital agriculture. The program included 27 speakers spread over eight sessions, including a closing panel of experts who provided their opinions on technology in agriculture around the world. Presentation session themes and speakers included:

1. Who will benefit from digital agriculture?

2. Digital technology through the supply chain (and its impact on-farm

3. The role of digital technologies in governance and compliance systems

4. The impacts of digital technologies on the rural workforce

5. Traceability and provenance – will digital technologies help to sell agricultural produce with confidence and will farmers see the benefit?

6. The connection between digital agriculture and agricultural finance

7. Is the agriculture sector ‘investment ready’ for digital products and services?

8. Closing panel – the global context