The food chain faces a number of growing challenges: water scarcity, climate change, the need to reduce carbon emissions, the desire to reduce “food miles” and a drive to reduce costs. The use of digital technology in farming is continuing to accelerate.

Key trends are around greater control and measurement of the use of inputs such as water, fertilsers, nutrients and pesticides. This trend is most developed in Vertical Farming, where every input is carefully controlled and measured. The technical challenges are the development of low cost, accurate and robust sensors for measuring inputs. Perhaps the greatest challenges are around development of low cost sensors to measure nutrient dosing.
 
Although Vertical Farming is capturing the headlines, the impact of new digital technologies on traditional agriculture is likely to be much greater.

Sentec is involved in helping companies address these issues, by developing technologies for more efficient use of water in irrigation systems, metering technologies and optimizing use of electricity in water pumping.