There is an ‘urgent’ need for upskilling and technical support for farm workers, a new report from the group has urged, as AI is increasingly used for tasks such as monitoring animal welfare, predicting disease, optimising crop nutrition, and automating repetitive processes like feeding and environmental control.
The sector is experiencing a shift in demand from manual labour to highly skilled roles, the report noted, including data analysts, robotics technicians and animal welfare technologists.
Precision agriculture will become increasingly autonomous, and robotics will replace routine operations.
Other new technology now routinely put on farms includes carbon trapping, remote sensing and monitoring systems and big data and analytics.
New roles will emerge, particularly for specialists who will manage and maintain these new technologies.
The report pointed out that AI technologies are not only transforming production and disease management but are also creating new revenue streams and improving risk management by enabling smarter, data-driven decisions on farms.
But the full benefits of AI can only be realised if the workforce is equipped with the necessary skills to implement and support these technologies.
Without them it warned the adoption of new technologies is being slowed, threatening the sector’s ability to remain competitive.
“New roles will emerge, particularly for specialists who will manage and maintain these new technologies,” the report said.
“Even with AI and specialist support, farmers and growers need to train for innovation because, ultimately, they are the decision makers and risk carriers.”
Recommendations for the future workforce
The report called for greater investment in training, especially in data handling and AI-supported decision-making; integration of digital skills and technology training at all levels of agricultural education; and ongoing upskilling to ensure workers can support the deployment and maintenance of AI systems.
Who pays?
This should be funded or subsidised by government, alongside investment from the farms themselves, Tess Howe, the TIAH’s head of partnerships and policy, told AgTechNavigator.
“If we want to rapidly update implementation of agtech on farms, government need to put some support into that,” she said.
“There also must be an element of the farmer putting their hand in their pockets as well. We need to demonstrate to farmers that by investing in training you get a better return from your staff and your investment in the technology.”
The many benefits of knowledge and training
Upskilling could bring a host of benefits for farmers and the agtech sector, she added.
This is includes making data more actionable for farmers. Some quizzed by the report said as that as much as 90% of data collected by combine harvesters goes unused.
“Is that because they collect information the farmer doesn’t need, or because they don’t understand it?” Howe asked.
“The report shows there’s going to be a bigger role for advisors and people who support farmers and that those people are not going to be farming-specific people,” she said.
“I compare it to an iPhone. I don’t believe there are many people who use all of the potential features because they’ve not been trained in what it can do. Similarly, we want to release that potential on farms.
“The top 25 per cent of farms are 1.8 times more efficient than the bottom 25. That’s through their knowledge and their skill in being more efficient.”
Overcoming trust barriers to adoption
TIAH’s report highlighted that despite strong interest in innovative solutions to farming challenges, adoption is often held back by a lack of trust in new items – and a preference for old, familiar technologies – coupled with challenging financial circumstances.
Greater upskilling and technical support for farmers could help simplify both these barriers, Howe suggested.
“Demonstration farms, or ones that have taken on the technology, have a massive role to play. They can discuss what they’ve implemented and got working for them and share that with other farmers. A farmer trusts another farmer far more than another expert.”
Farmers are likely to be bolder in their decisions if they know what the payback is on new technology and how long the payback will be, she added.
Succession and inheritance challenges
Greater upskilling may also help encourage more younger people into farming, she suggested.
“I think it opens farming up to a wider range of people. If you’ve got technology that is making the job less dirty, less manual with fewer hours, and you’ve got a better workplace environment that would definitely attract more people.”