Technology in agriculture continues to advance at a rapid pace. In 2019, 25 European countries signed a declaration of cooperation on ‘A smart and sustainable digital future for European agriculture and rural areas’, pledging to take a number of actions to support a successful digitalisation of agriculture and rural areas in Europe.

As a result, new applications of digital technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, blockchain, High Performance Computing (HPC), Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G are finding new uses in agriculture, and promise to increase farm efficiency while improving economic and environmental sustainability.

Given the rapid pace of innovation in the sector, the Irish Farmers Journal has decided to increase our coverage of this exciting area.

The extended coverage can be found primarily on our website and app, and will bring you weekly insights into developments in the sector.

In this week’s focus, we bring a flavour of what can be expected of this extended coverage.

We take a look at a new agri-tech company that launched in September. Based in China, FJDynamics claim to be the first company to mass produce autonomous agricultural vehicles available for global markets.

Their current product offering includes a new autonomous range of tractors, sprayers and rice planters. They also offer a new retrofit kit, which claims to turn a conventional agricultural tractor into an autonomous vehicle.

Jack Kennedy brings you highlights from the recent Animal Agri-Tech Innovation summit. The theme of the conference was ‘Building a healthy, sustainable and secure animal agriculture industry through innovation and collaboration.’

Jack brings you updates on robotics in meat factories and the future prospects for alternative proteins.