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WILDLABS logoWildlabs.net : The conservation technology network

discussion / Community Base  / 29 April 2025

AgTech: Breaking out of silos

Groups

I am a PhD student an new WILDLABS member and am loving it so far! Especially the WILDLABS.NET Variety Hour YouTube recordings and the different discussion groups!

I loved the Variety Hour from @tom_august discussing the creation of the Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects WILDLABS group, and I can see there is a Sustainable Fishing Challenges group, however I think there could be a lot of knowledge sharing between the existing WILDLABS groups which may have more of an animal conservation theme, and Agriculture technologies.

  • Should a new discussion group(s) be made to give space to break out of our silos and learn from Ag Tech discussions?
     

Whether you are using a drone to check thousands of km of fencelines to ensure livestock stay on your property, or to make sure poachers can't get in your wildlife reserve, the challenges are similar!
Whether you are identifying rare plants in a forest or weeds in a crop from satellite imagery, the challenges are similar!

Two people looking at a Trapview moth pest trap in a canola field. Image courtesy of Amber B Cunningham

As someone who works in Ag research, there is a lot of open source, public or commercially available AgTech research and development happening across the world in areas such as:

  • Weed and plant disease AI detection and spot spraying for reduced pesticide use.
  • Pest and beneficial insect monitoring for area wide and integrated pest management.
  • Drone imagery for plant nutrition assessment, phenotyping and crop scouting.
  • Precision agriculture such as soil type informed fertiliser application to prevent run off.
  • Livestock virtual fencing, electronic ID tags and water monitoring on remote cattle stations.

Examples include:

Image above of Dr. Ben Congdon (DPIRD) and Dr. Sean Prager (University of Saskatchewan) in a canola paddock with a TrapView Diamondback moth Plutella xylostella automated monitoring trap at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development Northam research canola paddock.

@alexrood Not sure how a new group is made but I am keen to learn, if there is interest!