“Ní neart go cuir le chéile” was the motto that EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan invoked when addressing the ICT Agricultural Conference in Kilkenny Castle last Friday.

He stressed the importance of collaboration in facing new challenges and opportunities in the agri-tech and agri-food sectors “to deliver more food, more solutions and more wealth”.

He said investment was the key to innovation in the sector and stated that there was “€3.6 billion available via Horizon 2020 and the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability”.

Information communication technology (ICT) is increasingly important to all sectors of the economy. The conference was organised by Waterford Institute of Technology’s (WIT) Telecommunications, Software and Systems Group (TSSG).

The aim of the conference was to generate industry-wide support for a national strategy to encourage the research and development of appropriate ICT solutions for the agri industry.

Commissioner Hogan said that products and apps have been developed for virtually every other economic sector – improving efficiencies and making work smarter, and he hoped that new collaborations would “enable farmers to do their work more smartly, and more efficiently”.

The result would be “improved quality of crop production, quality of livestock health but also, crucially, quality of life for farmers.”

Professor Willie Donnelly, president WIT and director TSSG, said that common opportunities from both the agricultural and ICT industries can be identified.

“The key emerging challenge is how to integrate and make sense of a diverse range of data sources, and channel this into a usable form that delivers increased efficiencies and supports increased levels of sustainable production.”

The attendance was made up of people from both the agriculture and ICT industries including Teagasc and the farming organisations.