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14th ICPA - Session

Session
Title: ICPA Opening Plenary Session
Date: Mon Aug 1, 2016
Time: 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Moderator: N/A
At-A-Glance
Keynote Presentation: Building Sustainable Breadbaskets, Fostering Inclusive Growth

Today’s food and agriculture systems are becoming more productive to meet demand, along with a focus on sustainability thanks to the pioneering work of agricultural scientists and innovators, dedicated farmers, and forward thinking governments working with the private sector to make critical investments.  As a result, over the last century, global agriculture and food prices have declined, on average, one percent per year, even while global population has grown from 2 billion in the early 1900s to just over 7 billion today.   

Yet political, environmental and economic headwinds arise, creating volatile and unpredictable swings that impact agricultural producers and consumers. Today, productivity in agriculture is beginning to stagnate in some countries and regions, and challenges are also arising from long-term climate change and shorter-term weather and pest impacts. Conflict within fragile states has created significant threats to peace and food security.  Geopolitical forces are threatening the coherence of political institutions and economic alliances, giving rise to investment uncertainty. And globally, nearly 800 million people experience hunger, with two billion people suffering from malnutrition and poor health – many of these are farmers themselves. 

How can we continue to build sustainable breadbaskets, manage the current storms and foster more inclusive growth, both now and in the years ahead? 

Precision agriculture can play an increasingly important role in the global effort to improve the lives of agriculture producers and consumers while conserving resources and must be tailored and extended more widely to those who can benefit the most. 

Margaret Zeigler (speaker)
Length (approx): 60 min
 
Welcome to ICPA

Welcome from the ISPA President, Ken Sudduth. Ken will welcome our international guests and US attendees. He will also give an overview of the International Society of Precision Agriculture including membership updates and the new Communities initiative that is gaining momentum. 

Ken Sudduth (speaker)
Research Leader
USDA-ARS
Columbia, MO 65211
US

Ken Sudduth is an Agricultural Engineer and Research Leader of the USDA-ARS Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research Unit in Columbia, Missouri. His research has emphasized soil and crop sensor development and application, including optical sensing of soil and crop properties, applications of soil electrical conductivity, and sensors for enhanced data collection during combine yield mapping.  He was the 2014-2016 President of the International Society of Precision Agriculture.

Length (approx): 20 min
 
ECPA and AACPA

The European Conference on Precision Agriculture will be held in Edinburough, Scotland, July 16-20, 2017. 

http://www.ecpa2017.com

Craige Mackenzie (speaker)
Founder and Director
Agri Optics NZ Ltd
Methven, AL, Australasia 7730
NZ
Craige Mackenzie is an innovative dairy and cropping farmer from Methven, New Zealand. His farms, Three Springs Dairies and Greenvale Pastures, are situated near the foothills of the Southern Alps on the Canterbury Plains, about 100km from Christchurch. Greenvale Pastures is an intensive irrigated cropping operation growing a wide number of specialist seed crops, along with wheat and ryegrass. Many of these are for overseas markets. Three Springs Dairies is high output dairy farm milking 1050 cows on 320 ha. The farm is a fully irrigated, pasture based system with grain feeding in the dairy shed. In 2008 Craige was recipient of a New Zealand Nuffield farming scholarship where his Study topic was ‘Understanding our Carbon Footprint in Farming Systems’. He and wife Roz were runner-up in the Lincoln University Foundation 2010 Farmer of the year. More recently in 2013 Craige and Roz were Supreme winners of the Ballance Farm Environmental Awards in Canterbury and went on to win the coveted 2013 National Ballance Farm Environmental Award ‘The Gordon Stephenson Trophy’. Craige and daughter, Jemma, established Agri Optics NZ Ltd, a company based on providing precision agriculture tools and services to increase the efficiency of NZ farming systems. This has recently expanded into a Joint Venture with New Zealand’s leading farming services providers, PGG Wrightson and CB Norwood Ltd. Craige has also patented the Smart N fertilizer application system which with the use of sensors can apply nitrogen in between dairy urine patches and not on them. Craige is one of New Zealand’s two representatives to the International Society for Precision Agriculture. Craige is a former board member of SPAA - Precision Agriculture Australia and until recently he has been the chairman of PAANZ -Precision Agriculture Association of New Zealand. Craige is heavily involved in a number of industry research initiatives involving both the dairy and cropping sectors. He currently sits on NZ Government Technical Advisory Groups in the areas of ‘Water Allocation and Quality’ and ‘Smart Agriculture’. Craige was invited to sit on the Global farmer Roundtable in 2012 and 2014 in Des Moines Iowa which is side event to the World Food Prize and is now a member of the Global farmer Network and has recently been appointed to the Global Farmer Network Board. Craige was awarded the 2016 International Precision Ag farmer of the year in St Louis, USA at the Info Ag and International Precision Ag conferences in August 2016. Craige and Roz have also recently received recognition from Environment Canterbury, receiving their ‘Outstanding Contribution Award’ for their excellence and innovation in farm practices . This is the first time this award has had agricultural recipients. Craige’s focus is on utilising precision agriculture systems to maximise nutrient and irrigation efficiency for improved farm sustainability, both profit an environmental.
Clive Blacker (speaker)
Precision Decisions LTD
GB
Length (approx): 20 min