Philippe Stoop, itk’s Director of Research and Innovation, presented a mini-conference at the Salon de l’Agriculture, on the La Ferme Digitale stand, on the theme of:
Science on the Farm
In summary:
With recent developments in digital agriculture, farmers are now equipped with instruments that were once reserved for agricultural development or even research. This revolution allows them to be more directly involved in R&D concerning them. It responds to two clearly identified needs for a more operational decision-making aid, both for farmers and for political decision-makers:
- The acquisition of “medium data” (intermediate data between research data and “Big Data”).
- The development of more operational indicators for the Ecophyto plan
Digital agriculture thus opens up new prospects for agricultural research and agricultural policies that are more in tune with farmers’ daily practices. It can enable a new form of participatory science to flourish, directly involving the professionals who will benefit from its spin-offs. It even places agriculture among the sectors at the forefront of research on artificial intelligence, as shown by the orientations of ANITI, the AI institute being set up in Toulouse in the wake of the Villani report of 2017, to which itk had contributed. (https://www.itk.fr/actualites/lagriculture-rapport-villani/ )
Predict and Decide