Interoperability Is Key to Future Developments in Ag Technology

By CropLife

On February 4, Topcon Positioning Group held a roundtable discussion on the topic of precision agriculture, reports Eric Sfiligoj at CropLife. This included several individuals from the company and Curt Blades, Senior Vice President of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM).

According to Douglas Schmuland, Senior Director – Global OEM Coordinator for Topcon, better communication is the key for “smart” ag technology systems going forward.

“The evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomy has been the communications improvements to farmers,” said Schmuland. “Up until now, that has always been the stumbling block to precision agriculture advancing. But we are starting to see, globally, different forms of communication that are opening up bigger and bigger data pipes. And we need larger data pipes from numerous locations, bringing in all types of data into our decision-making process. We are still not there, but we are getting closer.”

AEM’s Blades agreed with this assessment, adding interoperability will be key to the development of these systems. “The mobile phones business has followed this interoperability model for many years, and that’s really helped this industry grow,” he said. “We are now seeing this same push for interoperability in agriculture, even among brands that haven’t talked ‘in a polite way’ until now. Interoperability leads to innovation.”