Sunbury farmer Amanda Woods is part of a new movement towards smarter farming and she wants to spread the word.
That’s her aim as the new development officer of the Society of Precision Agriculture Australia.
The non-profit group advocates ‘precision agriculture’, or ‘smart farming’, across Australia.
Precision agriculture is a farming management method using technology like satellite navigation and GPS to observe, measure and respond to the variability in crops.
Ms Woods, who describes herself as a tree changer, runs training courses at the Goonawarra Neighbourhood House on the science behind food.
“I’m a scientist and I’ve been in Sunbury for about five years,” she said.
“I’ve been using yeast bacteria and fungi to make food for some time and teaching people all about being self-sufficient.”
Her passion for smart farming was borne of her love for the newest technology, which she uses on her own Emu Creek farm.
“Farmers rave about their drones and their applications that they use to map yields,” she said. “There are so many different systems that you can use to measure everything from nitrogen levels in your soil, so that you plant in the best places, through to tracking tags on your animals so you can locate them easily using an app on your mobile phone. I’m looking forward to sharing my ideas to increase the adoption of precision agriculture across Australia and internationally.
“I’ll be working hard to showcase how technology informs better decision-making to save time and money, and working with those across the industry.”
The society’s chief executive, Dr Nicole Dimos, said Ms Woods’ role was established to meet the demands of the industry.
“We’re seeing tremendous growth in precision agriculture nationally and this opportunity requires our organisation to revisit its communication and extension strategy, from increasing our online presence to hosting more frequent webinars.”
