e-Agri; Exploiting on-line sensing and ICT to Change the Rule of the Game for Global Agriculture and Food Security

Growing out of the existing research themes from the Syngenta sponsored Sensors University Innovation Centre at the University of Manchester, the e-Agri initiative represents a strategic decision to establish a centre that is informed by the wishes of the Agri-Food sector but, importantly, attacks the challenges from an on-line sensing and ICT centric perspective. Although there are numerous leading universities and independent research centres which are focused towards meeting the needs of the Agri-Food sector, these are bio-centric and lack the breadth of appropriate technical competencies to approach the problem strategically. For instance, many people are aware of the capabilities of RFID tags and these are an attractive proposition for solving numerous ???logging??? challenges using ???off-the-shelf??? technology. However, only technical experts will be fully aware of the opportunities that are emerging. Currently, technical expertise is typically sought on an ???as needs??? basis which, naturally, becomes rather ad hoc and unstructured. There are no precedents for a large dedicated on-line sensors and ICT team to lead the effort to make future farming and food supply viable using technical expertise. The term e-Agri is suggested to reflect the pivotal role to be played by the electronics and ICT community in addressing these challenges. It is argued that the e-Agri expertise should be pro-active from the centre of the activity rather than re-active at the periphery. This paper will present the motivations behind the e-Agri concepts and the on-line sensors and ICT research portfolio at Manchester which will help introduce the new systems and integrated business offers to change the rules for Agri-Food supply.