By JO HARRISON
INNOVATIVE use of digital technologies has been explored at the inaugural Digital Rural Futures Conference held at the University of New England last week.
The conference discussed a broad range of issues from harnessing opportunities for rural business through the national broadband network, raising productivity for primary industry through smart technologies, the role of regional government in promoting digital economies and how to drive real change and benefits to regional Australia to name a few.
Conference convenor Professor David Lamb from the Precision Agriculture Research Group at the University of New England said last week’s conference was a huge gamble that paid off enormously for the future of agriculture.
“We have a community of people that work in agriculture, farmers, farmer groups, government departments, business leaders and regional developers and planners and it was an unlikely mix but in fact they came together and gelled beautifully which is what we always hoped for,” Professor Lamb said.
“The amount of energy and interaction between these groups who wouldn’t ordinarily come together was evidence of the fact that the conference worked.”
The conference will now become an annual event and primarily focused on four themes. Smart technology on farm; smart or date and information management – how you manage and use this technology; smart services like the national broadband network and digital services that can be brought onto the farm and extension outreach and training.
Professor Lamb is confident that the digital future for rural and regional Australia will still be a focus for any new government.
“The NBN is not under threat regardless of any outcome from the election,” Professor Lamb said.
“Two reasons for this are that both sides of politics have committed to an NBN, there may be a slightly different form of it in the towns and the cities. But the things that matter to rural and regional Australia which is the other seven percent is the fixed wireless and the satellite, that investment is assured, I understand.
“The other thing is that no one would dare to retract an NBN because there is such a ground swell of understanding, expectation and of dependence now of this technology that if you don’t have it we are simply going to be back in the dark ages. It just won’t happen.”
