California Secretary of Agriculture Karen Ross visited Sierra College last week, making this her tenth visit to educate college student about the AgTechX Ed program and the career opportunities that are available in agriculture.

The Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) have been working together to integrate agtech-based curriculum with college course work to support the up-and-coming workforce with the skills and information needed to support their careers in a burgeoning tech-heavy industry. WGCIT has already implemented agtech modules to help streamline career paths for students. Once a student completes enough of the coursework, they have access to internships with grower operations.

For more information about the AgTechX Ed program, contact Carrie Peterson at [email protected].

Last week, the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) hosted AgtechX Ed at Mt. San Antonio College as part of an ongoing initiative to develop the next generation of tech-savvy agricultural workers.

The half-day event comprised three engaging panels, focusing on industry skills and identification; education and workforce development strategies; and industry leadership, where leaders from companies throughout the region, state and country delved into strategies and tactics for building a sufficient workforce. CDFA Secretary Karen Ross, a key supporter of AgtechX Ed, rounded the afternoon with a fireside chat and in-depth discussion on how to cultivate local talent through partnerships between government, industry and education.

The event concluded with a Mixer and Dinner with Ross, attendees, panelists and members of Mt. San Antonio College.

This event is part of the AgTechX Ed Initiative – a statewide effort, led by Western Growers and CDFA Secretary Karen Ross, to cultivate a future workforce with the skills and knowledge needed to navigate emerging on-farm technology.

The next AgtechX Ed Summit will take place on Thursday, Oct. 12 at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif. Register for the event today!

One topic that has come up a lot recently─including at the recent FIRA USA event─is how the amount of data being collected on grower operations is tremendous and only growing larger. From on-farm equipment including tractors and implements; to tools like weeding, thinning and planting; to scouting tools; to in-field sensors; to aerial collection via drones, planes, and satellites, growers are armed with more data than ever, and that will only become more true each year going forward. On top of the equipment, you’ve got labor and operations analytics.

So why is it that the data seems to always remain in silos? I think the answer is fairly simple─there are business owners who own different pieces of the farming operation who own the responsibility for the tool(s) in their business segment, but there usually isn’t a business owner for the integration of that data or the value proposition the integration creates. In short, the weeding or operations team owns responsibility for the weeding robots and the data they collect, and they work to maximize that as part of the labor-automation portfolio that does all the “tasks” needed to get the crop grown and harvested and wherever the end point for the journey of that crop ends up. It is the same for other silos─whoever authorized the trials and the purchase of each AgTech solution generally owns the responsibility to make sure it is working as designed and delivering the results at or above target.

But the weeding team does not own the responsibility for getting the weeding robot data to other teams. It could be tremendously useful to optimize either weeding crews or applications, but it often requires a manual data integration layer (think data imports into Excel CSV files and then re-importing into other systems for the application function) that makes it just hard enough that it is often not done. Nobody misses a bonus target for failing to help someone else use their data better elsewhere in the organization.

I wrote a while back about the need for an open data exchange format. That is still true. In addition to that challenge, I think grower organizations do not always assign ownership for someone to “organize all of our data to maximize efficiency across the entire farming operation.” It makes sense. That could easily be a half-time (or more) job, and that resource would have to come from somewhere else (which would now not get done) or an additional fractional to full head count would need to be approved. That’s not a small ask, which probably explains why this hasn’t happened very often. I think as more data is collected, the odds of it being a clear need will increase.

1) How do folks see this getting handled inside farming organizations?

2) How should this be handled?