IT students need herding into primary sector

 While I don’t dismiss the value of IT in fields such as gaming or design, I worry about the possibility of an unfavourable distribution of students choosing educational programmes in these areas at the expense of advancing IT in the primary sector, especially considering the commercial relevance and importance of the land-based industries to New Zealand.

Although there is much scope for technological advances in farming, it’s also important to realise that the primary sector is much broader than this. It also involves areas such as supply chain management, environmental management, geographic information systems (GIS) and even accounting. It’s a multifaceted, multibillion dollar industry. As such, it’s an exciting time for primary industry IT.

As well as setting up the new department to put greater emphasis on IT for the land-based industries, recent qualifications reforms have seen Lincoln introduce an agritech major to its bachelor of science degree, a GIS and environmental informatics major to its bachelor of environment and society, and an information technology major to its bachelor of commerce.

Technological advances include the increasing use of mobile phone apps in precision agriculture, such as through the optimisation of irrigation systems.

There are many interrelated science and business considerations on the average farm, which means many commercial decisions of consequence have to be made regularly. This translates into opportunities in IT for optimising farm operations and the wider primary sector. More grads are needed to capitalise on the growing potential.

• Stuart Charters is head of department at Lincoln University’s newly established department of informatics and enabling technologies.