• Charles Sturt’s Global Digital Farm partners with Telstra and Food Agility
• The partnership program will assist Telstra to manage barriers to adoption of data-driven agriculture
• The one-year program will see the University share its capabilities to help the Farm Data Services platform

Charles Sturt University is providing access to data generated by its integrated Global Digital Farm in Wagga Wagga to Telstra in a year-long trial program.

The partnership between the University, Telstra and Food Agility will aim to assist the Farm Data Services platform to overcome one of the biggest hurdles in modern, data-driven agriculture – how to securely manage and integrate data from multiple technologies across the farm.

Built by Telstra with global technology partners IBM and Proagrica, the secure Farm Data Services platform integrates, standardises and distributes data sets from existing agtech deployments.

Successful integration of the available data streams will provide a single point of access for Charles Sturt farm management, teaching and research activities and enable focused programs to develop new decision support tools.

It will be trialled over 12 months at the Global Digital Farm at Charles Sturt in Wagga Wagga, which is managed in partnership with Food Agility, as a test bed for agrifood research and technology.

Charles Sturt University Vice-Chancellor Professor Renée Leon said the partnership with Telstra cemented the University’s reputation as the Australian epicentre for data-driven agrifood innovation.

“Home to the Global Digital Farm and AgriPark, Charles Sturt University’s Wagga Wagga campus connects the research and innovation ecosystem to our farmers so they have new technologies in their hands sooner,” Professor Leon said.

“The Global Digital Farm is forging a new path for the future of farming in Australia and Charles Sturt University is proud to be able to share this technology and innovation with Telstra.”

Food Agility CEO Mr Richard Norton said the Global Digital Farm was unique in Australia and the perfect place to road test Telstra’s Farm Data Services Platform before scaling nationally.

“The Global Digital Farm is a real-world testing environment, where the 1600-hectare commercial farming operation works in tandem with scientists and technologists,” Mr Norton said.