The Agri-Tech Balancing Act – Optimising One or Managing Many?

The REAP conference is Agri-TechE’s flagship event that unites our ecosystem around a topical theme.

Discover game-changing technologies, meet industry-leading farmers, and be inspired by world-class research. The REAP conference is unique in the UK’s agri-tech event calendar. Putting farmers at the centre of the discussion, REAP helps delegates navigate the demands of 21st Century agriculture by reframing challenges to encourage new ideas and identify innovative solutions.

REAP Conference 2024: Theme

Global agriculture has evolved into a dual landscape of both vast scale and intricate detail, thanks to technology.

It is possible to manage vast swathes of land at scale, while also deploying innovations that permit precise, personalised management of individual crops and animals. 

The tech is here already. Robotic dairies have made the husbandry of individual dairy cows a reality, and the rise of computer vision, AI and automation enables the differing needs of every plant to potentially be met.

Huge quantities of data about the performance of a piece of fruit, a single flower, or even a chicken can generate new insights to help optimise the way they are looked after. Their nutrition, water, inputs to help them combat pests and diseases….potentially everything that might not be perfect can be improved.

So how far can this go?

At what point do the benefits from bespoke management of individuals outweigh the additional costs of more general oversight of the wider crop, flock or herd? Where’s the tipping point at which potentially sub-optimal management of the population might be actually a better option that individually curated management plans for all?

At REAP 2024 we’ll be considering where the balance lies between “management of the Many” as compared with “optimisation of the One.”

Join us to find some answers – as well as hearing about the hottest start-ups, the exciting emerging science, and meeting existing and future contacts.

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