The AgroTic Chair leads an Observatory of the Uses of Digital Agriculture. This observatory started in November 2016 aims to produce an inventory of the Uses of Digital Agriculture. What technologies are used today? For which types of agriculture? For which applications? In parallel, the objective of the Observatory is to identify the main obstacles to the adoption of Digital Agriculture, as well as the existing levers.
In April 2017, the observatory published an overview of smartphone use as a measurement system in agriculture.
Farmers are less equipped with smartphones than the rest of the population, but they are catching up very quickly. Between 2015 and 2016 alone, the equipment rate rose by 7 points, after a 12-point increase the previous year, according to Nicolas Moreno of digital consultancy Idate. " Farmers still prefer fixed solutions 74% are equipped with PCs against 47% for the French population but they are already 45% to own a smartphone (against 54% for the entire French population)," completes the consultant." According to the consultant Beatrix Esposito, "given the exponential increase in the number of applications available, one of the recognized obstacles to their use in rural areas at present is the coverage of our territory by broadband networks, but also low-speed networks that are entering the battle".The AgroTIC Chair is held by two schools, Montpellier Supagro and Bordeaux Sciences Agro, and by the French National Institute for Research in Science and Technology for the Environment and Agriculture (IRSTEA).
As part of this study, the Observatoire des usages de l'agriculture numérique (Observatory of digital agricultural uses) listed 110 mobile applications with sensors used for equipment adjustment, surveying, guiding, weather forecasting, field observation, and terrain interpretation. A usage rating was distributed to each application. These notes made it possible to evaluate the use of the applications, and thus the use of the smartphone as a measurement system for what level of use, for what measurements and for what purpose?
The Observatory of Digital Agriculture Uses is supported by #DigitAg, an Institute entirely dedicated to digital agriculture. The #DigitAg Institute was inaugurated on June 30. Based in Montpellier with two branches in Toulouse and Rennes, it brings together 360 agronomists, computer scientists, economists and sociologists from 25 laboratories at Inra, Irstea, CIRAD and INRIA, three higher education institutions (Montpellier SupAgro, AgroParisTech and the University of Montpellier), two technology transfer structures (SATT AxLR and Acta) and eight companies. #9.9 million and will run on a budget of €147 million over seven years (total cost including salaries).
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