EQUAL to financial challenges faced by the agricultural sector, is the impact its continued evolution has on a need for increased security and risk management, according to national audit and accounting firm RSM Australia.
In part three of Farm Weekly's feature - containing edited excerpts from RSM's The 2022 State of Agribusiness in Australia - we look at the need for Australian agribusiness to address the growing role of technology and the cybersecurity risks adoption of technology brings with it.
AS with other industries, advances in technologies present significant opportunities for the agricultural sector to streamline processes and achieve greater levels of productivity and efficiency.
By harnessing the power of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), automation, machine learning, data analytics and more, farmers, producers and other agricultural businesses can achieve greater yields and outcomes.
AFGRI Equipment Australia commercial director Wessel Oosthuizen said technology has an increasingly important role in agribusiness and, as such, "it should be seen as standard".
"Five years ago, some technologies might have been considered an option for new equipment, this should no longer be the case," Mr Oosthuizen said.
"Using advanced camera technology on sprayers, for example, lets farmers and producers spray selectively to achieve optimal yields.
"Ensuring these technologies are available for all equipment moving forward will be critical in ensuring the future success of Australia's agricultural producers."
Moora Citrus chief executive officer Shane Kay agrees.
"GPS tracking is one of the most effective technologies we have in terms of efficiencies across our properties," Mr Kay said.
"With 82 blocks and 2870 rows of trees on the farm, it can be easy to go down the wrong row or block, especially at night.
"However, with GPS tracking, we can easily see on a screen the exact block, row and tree where tanks have emptied, which lets us direct workers back to the right location to continue with spraying.
"In addition, tracking workers more easily is essential for safety on the property.
"If a worker were to have a health or safety issue, we can be alerted immediately and identify exactly where we need to go to provide support."
Digital tracking also has a use across the sector beyond GPS tracking on machinery and vehicles, the 2022 State of Agribusiness in Australia report points out.
Traceability is a critical area of concern, especially in terms of maintaining the integrity of the supply chain.
Tony Girgis, former chief executive and managing director of Brownes Dairy, now heads Audemars Consulting.
He said, "initially, traceability was implemented and grew in importance to help manage the authenticity of Australian produce and to reduce the possibility of counterfeiting".
"However, traceability is critical in food production from a health and security point of view, though it's not always easy to implement depending on the product and its associated supply chain," mr Girgis said.
"Traceability in the dairy industry, for instance, can be simple if it's one tanker collecting milk from a single farm and delivered to the dairy for processing separately.
"However, in reality, it could be a tanker collecting milk from multiple farms and it only takes one bad batch to contaminate the entire tanker.
"The more the product is mixed before it is processed, the harder it becomes to manage traceability, thereby requiring very robust systems and protocols to be in place by the processor.
"There needs to be more innovative systems and technologies in place to better manage traceability across the dairy industry and also to strengthen its use across other industries.
"As supermarkets increasingly contract farmers and producers directly, it's likely we'll see more rigour in the industry for high quality traceability protocols.
"It may also mean some level of government involvement to assist in securing the supply chain, along with incentives to help producers implement new technologies and to invest in training to support this."
The use of data-driven technology is increasing across the agricultural sector to optimise management of properties and what they produce.
"Particularly in horticulture, there are technologies that can help to provide greater understanding around exactly what crops and individual plants need daily depending on climate, the weather at the time and the water and nutrition requirements daily or at certain times of day," Mr Kay said.
"By using technological points and sensors, such as trunk and fruit dendrometers, sap flow measures, moisture probes, pressure sensors, flow meters and more, we can access significant volumes of data and adjust irrigation measures across the orchard hourly in accordance with weather changes for the best results."
But despite the benefits of new technologies, the RSM report points out there are a variety of barriers that must first be overcome before adoption accelerates further.
One such issue, it claims, is a lack of suitable workers available to help support and maintain new technologies, a challenge exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Matt Roesner, technical director of equipment manufacturer Roesner Pty Ltd, said the shift towards smart technologies and the agricultural industry's inability to support it, was one of the biggest challenges needing to be rapidly resolved.
"Growers and producers must adopt new technologies to remain competitive, including moving towards robotics and more autonomous vehicles," Mr Roesner said.
"However, the industry currently lacks the labour and skills required to support and maintain this type of equipment.
"Innovative agricultural technologies have been around for at least the past 20 years, though adoption has been slow as farmers recognise that there hasn't been anyone around to help support them to adopt new technologies."
Cybersecurity continues to be a high priority and ever-growing concern for all producers and businesses involved in the agricultural sector, the RSM report said.
GPS tracking introduces the potential for foreign threat actors to track crop production, as well as to potentially target and take connected machines and vehicles offline with advanced ransomware and disruption ware.
As the technology used across the sector continues to advance and adoption rates accelerate, the risk of cyberattacks also increases, making cybersecurity a critical consideration for Australian agribusiness, according to Ashwin Pal, director of cyber security and privacy risk services at RSM.
"In the manufacturing sector they make stuff and use technology to do it, (but) they don't necessarily have a strong appreciation of how to secure things and as a result, they fall victim to cybercrime," Mr Pal said.
"Agribusiness is not too dissimilar.
"We're seeing more and more cases of rip-off ransomware.
"The idea behind it is to lock somebody's system up by hacking into the IT (information technology) network and infect it so it can't be operated and try and get money out of it.
"Or try and break into somebody's system so you can actually steal confidential data, be it customer information or intellectual property.
"A lot of agribusinesses are investing heavily in what we call the Internet of Things (IoT) technology - sensors and automated machinery which can be remotely operated.
"If these are actually deployed without being secure, it produces an opportunity for cyber criminals to do nefarious things.
"What is important is to make sure that organisations before they actually deploy these technologies, think about security as part of the deployment process.
"A good idea would be to make sure that security is built within the project itself so the technology is being rolled out securely."
Fraser Cuthbertson, chief financial officer of The Pentarch Group which has forestry and agriculture interests, agreed cyber attacks are a threat to the agricultural sector.
"Even if individual producers and farmers aren't targeted, the sector can be challenged by breaches of organisations and industries that work on the periphery, including third-party institutions that manage payments and other daily processes," Mr Cuthbertson said.
"Cybersecurity has almost become the number one priority for many producers and disaster recovery is also a major consideration.
"It's critical for everyone working in the agricultural sector to understand the risks and what steps they can take to mitigate these risks.
"Every property, every site needs to be checked thoroughly to ascertain how disruptions can be counteracted and sites can be brought back online after a cyberattack.
"There must be a strategy in place, or agricultural producers could face significant disruptions and damages."
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