Photo: Informa Australia

The trial is a cornerstone of the Labor Government’s $27 million investment in digital agriculture and will investigate issues from network connectivity through to on-farm Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

The Labor Government has now asked companies to submit tenders to build IoT networks that will enable farmers to participate in the trial, which will cover Victoria’s major agricultural sectors of dairy, horticulture, meat production and broadacre cropping.

Tenders are being sought for the establishment of IoT networks for each of the four trial regions – around Maffra, Tatura, Serpentine and Birchip – to provide the connectivity needed to enable the use of on-farm IoT solutions.

A second request will follow shortly, inviting agriculture IoT providers to submit proposals to supply applications and devices for the four farm types included in the trial.

Farmers participating in the trial will be able to select IoT solutions to trial on their farm, with financial support from Agriculture Victoria.

The IoT solutions used in the trial will help farmers make more informed decisions and improve farm performance by providing greater information through monitoring of farm variables.

The Requests for Proposal can be found at tenders.vic.gov.au, with agreements expected to be signed later this year.

Agriculture Victoria will also soon be recruiting farmers to participate in the trials. To register your interest, please visit agriculture.vic.gov.au/digitalag.

The trial is just one part of the government’s Connecting Victoria initiative, which is ensuring regional communities are digitally connected through free public WiFi pilots, new towers to fix mobile blackspots and the $45 million Connecting Regional Communities Program to address regional priorities.