The Victorian Government has called for expressions of interest for its planned on-farm trials of IoT, part of its $45 million Connecting Victoria initiative to improve digital technology and infrastructure across regional Victoria.
In the first round of the trials grants of up to $30,000 will be available to up to 600 eligible applicants in the regions of Maffra, Birchip, Serpentine and Tatura to cover up to two-thirds of the cost of on-farm IoT technology.
Trials in each region will be limited to one type of farming: dairy in Maffra, grains in Birchip, sheep in Serpentine and horticulture in Tatura.
Farmers wanting to take part will need to submit an expression of interest by 2 August.
Agriculture Victoria will support the delivery of IoT connectivity to the trial regions, partner with participants and evaluate the impact these technologies can have on farm performance.
It has appointed four new staff members, one for each region. They will support farmers taking part in the trial by helping them to select on-farm technology.
The Victorian Government released its digital agriculture strategy in October 2018, saying it was backed by $27 million of government funding to help Victorian farmers adopt digital technologies, a figure that includes $12m for the on-farm IoT trial.
In its announcement of the strategy the Government said, to inform the roll out of the trial it was setting up site reference groups for each of the four trial regions.
“Local farmers Bree Whittaker (Maffra), Will Hooke (Serpentine), Linc Lehmann (Birchip) and Mitchell McNab (Tatura) will Chair the respective groups, providing an industry voice to ensure that the trial meets the needs of farmers,” it said.
Tortuous trial history
The trials have had a rather convoluted history, as we reported in August 2018. Funding was announced in the 2016/2017 budget and in March 2018 the government announced that the trials would start in July 2018.
In June it followed up the March announcement with another announcementheaded “Farm focus: $12 million digital agriculture trial underway”. That was clearly not correct because it was only on 1 August that the Governmentissued RFPs for the provision of connectivity and for applications and devices for the trials.
The connectivity RFP covered
- Network infrastructure that enables affordable IoT connectivity and services;
- Sustainable business models during and beyond the trial period;
- Provision of network services that are supported by service agreements;
- Network co‐contributions.
The devices RFP covered
- Ag‐IoT applications and devices that demonstrate clear benefits to farms;
- Sustainable business models during and beyond the trial period;
- Provision of application and devices that are secure, supported by service agreements and provide access to relevant trial data.
The Government boasted about the RFPs in a press release of 3 August saying it had begun a global search to find cutting-edge agtech to support the trial, and expected to sign agreements later in the year.
We were unable to find any announcement of agreements and the call for expression of interest makes no mention of any partners. We have queried the Victorian Government.
KPMG implementation plan
Between September and November 2017, KPMG worked with the Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (DEDJTR) “to help clarify and better understand the barriers and opportunities that exist across the Victorian agricultural industry in relation to the adoption of IoT and other digital technologies,” and to help develop an implementation plan for the on-farm IoT trials. A summary report of KPMG’s finding was published in March 2018.
