Scotland’s co-ops are to take a lead in rolling out precision farming techniques

Technological progress is the key to productivity and sustainability in agriculture
Technological progress is the key to productivity and sustainability in agriculture

Scotland’s farmer co-ops are to take a lead in rolling out precision farming techniques, agri-tech and data analytics to their members.

A project being delivered by the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS) will work with several co-ops, assisting them to research, design and trial precision farming and agri-tech services appropriate to their members and markets.

Learning will be shared to make it easier for other co-ops to get involved. The Scottish Government is supporting the project, which will conclude in March 2017.

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Connectivity, Fergus Ewing, commented: "The Vision for Agriculture highlights the importance of the agricultural sector, enhancing performance and continuing to support communities, the environment and the wider economy in Scotland.

"Farmer co-operatives are well placed to take advantage of economies of scale, share best practice and accelerate the uptake of new technologies.

"Co-ops can also deliver valuable productivity and resource efficiency gains as well as increase resilience to challenges such as market volatility and climate change.

"It is with great pleasure that I am able to confirm Scottish Government funding support for SAOS to deliver three projects, aiming to promote precision farming, measure value of farming co-ops and record carbon gains from collaboration.

"I look forward to seeing the positive results."

Conduits to new and smart technologies

James Graham, Chief Executive of SAOS, added: "Last year, we encouraged agricultural co-ops to give us their own future vision and one of the roles they identified was to become conduits to new and smart technologies on behalf of their farmer members.

"This project enables the co-ops to proceed in the short term.

"We have had a strong response from several who are keen to engage with the project, which we believe will make a significant impact.

"Co-ops have a unique ability to aggregate data across members, and with others in their supply chains, to ensure most efficient production in response to customer requirements.

"The fact that the farmers will own the data that is collected by their co-op, for the collective benefit of members, is really important."

The precision farming project is one of three that the Scottish Government is supporting in the agricultural co-op sector, all of which will be managed by SAOS.

The other projects include one concerned with validating the value of co-op membership.

This will develop a methodology to enable co-ops to measure and communicate the quantitative and qualitative benefits of membership.

The third targets a collective response by farmers to climate change, and aims to create methodology for collective actions and measurement of resulting carbon gains.

The combined value of the projects is approximately £200,000.