Farming must face up to data challenge

Simper ways of gathering data would also become important, said George Lindop of Smart Rural, a Government funded project aimed at establishing so-called long range, wide area networks in rural areas.

Using shed-mounted or freestanding base stations, individual farms or groups of farms within a 7.5-mile radius could receive data from any number of devices and monitors.

Mr Lindop said: “There is no limit. It could be from soil moisture and temperature sensors, from crop storage monitors or electric fence monitors.

“Vehicle trackers will become increasingly important for measuring the time spent in each field without the need for laboriously recording the details manually. This information then becomes really useful for benchmarking.”

The advantage of using these district schemes based around a farm located base station is they work in ‘not-spots’ where there is no internet connectivity.

Mr Noble also highlighted the need to cooperatively use data to quantify the contribution of farming to mitigating climate change, for example data on soils, forestry, livestock and energy.