Around 180 people filled the room at Vallfarten on 23 October at Linköping University. Everything from advisors, students, farmers and academics from all over Sweden gathered here with a common goal: to strengthen Swedish agriculture and make it more competitive.
- We have come a long way in terms of digital technology in agriculture, but we can't stop the journey; we have to accelerate it,’ emphasised Per Frankelius, organisational leader of the Digitalisation Hub.
The challenges facing agriculture
Agriculture today faces many challenges, not least due to the drought that is becoming increasingly severe in Europe. Another challenge is to manage all the modern and in many cases advanced digital technology on the farms, something that some farmers may experience concern about.
Beatrice Magnusson from Linköping Science Park and representative of IoT World and Secure Tech Hub, gave examples of the black headlines that can scare farmers to take the step towards the technology of the future. But as a solution to the problem, she explained how to avoid cyber attacks and other types of intrusion on your farm. This includes being careful to connect to your own network, restricting access to the systems of employees.
Raising awareness
One of the speakers at the kick-off was LRF's President and CEO, Anna Karin Hatt. She expressed great joy that this knowledge hub actually ended up at Linköping University, given their strong expertise in AI and data. She also gave a nod to Östergötland, which is one of the most prominent rural regions.
The overall goal of the Digitisation Hub is to increase knowledge in digitisation; today there is a lot of research that does not reach farmers, and much of the technology available in various areas could be applied to agriculture. It is therefore important for the Digitalisation Hub to put on its boots and go out to the farmers, to uncover the needs that currently exist on the farms.
The benefits of digital technology
In terms of digital technology in practice and which can facilitate and streamline agriculture, you could listen to David Askenteg from Väderstad, who showed their SeedEye system, Per-Anders Algerbo from RISE with their drone that can read weeds in the fields, Carl Oscar Paulrud from DeLaval talked about their concept Push and Pull and Thomas Klingström and Patricia Ask-Gullstrand from SLU who illustrated their product GigiCow which can read cross weed stress in real time.
The day ended with an exclusive panel discussion with representatives from the organisations that are part of the Digitalisation Hub's expert network, as well as farmers Eva Ohlsson from Bergs sätteri and Victor Johansson from Bleckenstad gård, led by Peter Borring.
Something that was recurring among the organisations was the customers' view of digitalisation, which can be explained as two camps. One side questions the benefits of going completely digital, where many do not even have BankID, while the other side shows a great interest in digital technology such as virtual fences.