Digital technologies are currently underpinning revolutions in business and society. In particular, digital technologies have driven major efficiency gains in almost all industries since the late 1970s. Digital technologies, and the complex infrastructures such as the Internet created by them, have opened up entirely new business models and opportunities. Whole industries can and have been disrupted. New industries can arise where none existed before.

Agricultural industries have long been innovators in the use of technology. Mechanisation, industrial production of fertilisers and pesticides, and dramatic improvements in crop varieties and breeds have led to substantial productivity improvements over the previous century. Digital technologies have been part of this increase in efficiency.

That Australia could miss out on the benefits of digital technologies because of gaps and deficiencies in our data infrastructure is a significant concern. This report explores these issues. In particular, it considers whether the lack of available data in Australia will limit the benefit that can be derived from the adoption of digital technologies. It surveys currently available data sources and decision-support tools. Based on interviews with producers and industry representatives as well as independent research, it considers where future investment may give economic returns. The review will serve as a resource for producers, policy makers and commercial technology suppliers to guide their decisions for future investment and planning.

The key objective of this project is a review of the current and future state of agricultural data, rules communication and systems in Australia to identify the high-value information data sets and tools that agricultural producers need in decision making in their farming and fisheries. The review will serve as a resource that producers, policy makers and commercial technology suppliers will use to guide their decisions for future investment and planning. Also a review of the current and future state of agricultural data, rules communication and systems in Australia and identify the high-value information data sets and tools that agricultural producers need in decision making in their framing and fisheries. The review will serve as a resource that producers, policy makers and commercial technology suppliers will use to guide their decisions for future investment and planning.

This project used workshops and interviews with key stakeholders to identify which datasets and decision-support tools were currently being used across different agriculture sectors and explore where future investment opportunities may exist. Based on these interviews we identified five main cross-sectoral data types that warranted further analysis. These were soils, weather, imagery, land use and property boundaries. For each of these data types we have documented the key existing datasets, discussed the trends and opportunities and made recommendations about a desired future state.

A key finding from this study is that thinking purely in terms of data is anachronistic. While data will always be the foundation of information products, digital technologies and advanced analytics will facilitate a much broader suite of services and products.

In reviewing cross-sectoral data it has become apparent how haphazard the development of data and knowledge assets has been in some cases. While the value of information and knowledge about Australia has been recognised, there has not been a fully coordinated strategy around its prioritisation and collection. The current data and assets reflect needs, decisions and priorities that have changed over time. But whether this is efficient going forward, as the opportunities for predictive analytics in the agricultural sector increase, is questionable. We thus recommend that there is a strategic plan around cross-sectoral data assets, and that the draft version of this plan come from this document. The report proposes thirteen recommendations that address issues such as investment in a national agriculture data infrastructure, targeted investment for the development of data-driven decision support systems, the development of ‘ready-to-go’ data based on existing data holdings, the promotion of findable accessible interoperable and reusable storage system by rural development corporations, agriculture data exchange platforms supported by an appropriate business model, sector based alliances committed to leverage investment in common data, increased university training in agricultural digital technologies and the development of business models to improve the quality and density of digital soil information. The report also recommends support for the assimilation of increasing sensor and informally collected weather data with existing forecasts aimed at improving the forecast information at finer spatial and temporal scales, the development of bespoke weather and climate metrics tailored to the farming community and increased efforts to translate sub-seasonal forecasts into decision-support tools.

Remotely sensed (RS) information products have the capacity to generate geographically extensive and cost-effective data and will be crucial to the full implementation of digital agriculture. The report recommends making RS data being made more available and in formats accessible and interpretable by developers of agricultural applications. The final recommendation focuses on the development of interfaces between the existing ACLUMP partnership and new data streams to enable opportunities in biosecurity and industry planning.