DIGITAL technology could increase the value of Australian agriculture productivity by more than $20 billion, a study has found.
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The Australian Farm Institute predicts that the application of digital technology could yield up to $20 billion for agriculture's bottom line by 2050.
An institute study found that producers across all agricultural sectors would benefit from the increase in production value.
Agriculture Victoria's Mark Gould said technology was becoming increasingly important on farms.
He said the fact that digital agricultural could increase the value of productivity by $20 billion was mindblowing.
"That is an incredible amount of money in just the agriculture industry and Internet of Things is one of the critical programs to help with that."
Agriculture Victoria is rolling out on-farm trials of new Internet of Things technology.
The state government called for expressions of interest for the $12-million program earlier this month for farmers in Buloke Shire.
Mr Gould is the trial co-ordinator for the region.
He said applications had now closed and more than 100 farmers lodged expressions of interest.
"The concept of Internet of Things is around gathering environmental data and transmitting it to the internet, in order to help with decision making," he said.
"Internet of Things could also be data transmitted from the internet to a device.
"An example would be an irrigation system that is on an automated loop - it measures soil moisture and might decide it's not wet enough, so it sends that information to a pump to be turned on."
The trial will provide grants to broadacre cropping, sheep, horticulture and dairy farmers to invest in technologies that match their on-farm needs.
Mr Gould said farmers chosen for the trial would develop a plan on how to use Internet of Things on their property.
"It's about choosing the right technology for their farm, depending on what problems they want to solve," he said.
Mr Gould encouraged farmers to embrace technology wherever they could.
"Farmers probably don't realise where technology has got to now and how it could be making their lives a lot easier," he said.
"We have gone through a bit of a curb where there was a lot of hype about technology in the past, but it didn't live up to its reputation.
"Things have come a long way since then and farmers should reconsider their approach.
"Lots of farmers don't use simple technology such as weather data or soil moisture probes, which can help with simple decision making such as 'should I spray or not', or 'should I cut hay today'.
"Rather than going out and canvassing the field, they can just look at their phone to help make those decisions."