"Czech agriculture is facing a number of problems, drought is one of them. However, we can make life much easier for farmers," says Lukáš Musil, Sales Director of Agdata.cz, which focuses on digitization in agriculture. You can read how exactly digitization can help Czech farmers, what would advise farmers to fight drought, or what the Czech state is failing in agricultural policy in our interview.
How many entities do you currently work with in the Czech Republic? How large is the area of the agricultural area monitored?
Agdata is currently one of the largest domestic digital ecosystems for farmers. The platform is used by approximately 1500 farms of all sizes. They control an incredible 650,000 hectares using our sensors or telematics tools. But it's still only a fraction of our potential. I believe we'll be talking at least twice as soon.
How does your project help in the work of farmers?
I will not exaggerate when I say that we are able to improve almost every process that takes place on the farm today. And if we are not, we will soon be, because the entire Agdata digital ecosystem is constantly evolving. Our product is based on two pillars – software that is the brain of the entire platform, and then a large number of various devices, sensors and telematics sensors that simply communicate with this software.
Farmers thus get a huge amount of data that they did not have before, or they have only very difficult to access. And they simply work with this data, because the software itself prepares outputs from it. At the same time, it will process this data into simple statements intended, for example, for authorities checking legal or subsidy obligations. Thanks to us, the farmer will gain time for skilled activities instead of having to deal with the administrative agenda.
Can you please give specific examples of the use of Agdata from practice?
Of course, thanks to data from soil probes, you will find out what the soil moisture is and adjust your plans accordingly. The GPS on the tractor calculates how much diesel you have passed, and agdata will prepare the logbook of the rides needed to file the green diesel declaration accordingly. Keyrings will show you where your colleagues or employees are located and where they moved throughout the day. The rod probe monitors the quality of the stored grain and notifies it when it begins to spoil. Satellite screening will run through your entire grunt once every five days, depending on the cloud, and you will find out if the field is negatively affected by drought, diseases of cultural crops or pests such as vole. Digitizing a farm can do a lot of other things, save tens to hundreds of hours a week and bring a whole host of savings, because you'll pass less, you'll get less cunning, you'll check more, and you won't have any losses by detecting the troubles on your property in time.
What do you think are the biggest problems of Czech agriculture?
First of all, the problem is that Czech agriculture lacks people, with an estimated 25-30,000 workers. There is also no unskilled workforce, which is a novelty of recent years. Finding workers in the field to help farmers in the season is now a superhuman task. Imagine how "easy" it is to find suitable people when you have to ride a tractor during the day and you get to the computer after dark, when you can no longer see the work in the field. And, of course, it is even worse with people with experience, not only are they dwindling, and thus valuable know-how is being lost, but as they move closer to cities, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find someone in more remote regions.
The second thing that relates to the first is the increasing administrative burden. Agriculture is, of course, very closely linked to the state subsidy policy and the European Union's fund and grant contributions. It is a very complicated and fragmented agenda requiring complex reporting. Which is fine, public money is supposed to be controlled. For farmers, however, this means demanding paperwork, for which there is simply no time left; and I know cases where, for example, some subsidies are lost because they cannot process the reports properly.
And the third problem is nationalisation and co-edification, the consequences of which we are only now fully aware of. Not only do the current fields often not respect the original natural character of the landscape, but above all they are owned by people who often do not have a relationship with them. When it connects with a farmer who sees land as a mere way to make a profit, it's a problem.
The current problem of Czech agriculture is undoubtedly also drought, how are the Czech fields really doing according to your data? What can be done about this situation?
Drought is just one of the problems. If we realize that the rainfall total does not change during the year, but the soil is withering, then it is clear that something is wrong at a completely elementary level. Farmers who use weather stations or Agdata sensors have the advantage that they can fight drought significantly more effectively. Once all householders are digitized, it will be possible to work better with drought.
The second thing is that we will not remove climate change. Here it is necessary to follow the path of land treatment, to retain water in the landscape, to return natural life to it. And here we are again with insensitive interventions from the 1950s, road cancellations, tearing up draws and meliorations. Yet even in our territory, there are already countless cases of good practice that show that it makes sense. All you have to do is want and be patient in the fight against bureaucracy or an rigid view.
Drought is also seen as one of the effects of climate change. Can you judge how climate change manifests itself in the context of Czech agriculture?
Climate change is definitely a huge challenge. The drought in question must be seen as one of many manifestations, because the change in conditions is really complex. Luckily, I think a lot of people are starting to realize that this can't go on. We already see this in declining harvests, shifts in harvests or new pests.
And how do you think these changes will affect the future, can we prepare for them in some way?
There are a number of models of how it will look in ten or twenty years. I'm more of an optimist, I believe the landscape can handle it. But it will be a sad sight, because the character we are used to is likely to change significantly. It is already sad for me to see pine trees retreat from the lowlands, even though it is actually a natural process.
However, it is true that it is possible to prepare for all this. Sensors and sensors can collect so much data today that prediction models advise farmers with high accuracy even when the climate is changing. But we will have to learn a lot from scratch, of course the composition of the cultivated crops will change and overall it will also be related to the state's approach. Unfortunately, it now looks as if there is no climate change in its policy, so there is a needless lack of coordination of nationwide activities.
I see that you think agriculture is facing a number of problems, but what do you see as the advantages of Czech agriculture? I'm sure there'll be some.
We live in a beautiful country with a diverse landscape that, with a reasonable approach, can produce great results. A new generation of farmers is coming, which is less numerous, but it is people who want to do their job well and smartly. Czechs are beginning to notice differences in land and landscape care, and reasonable farmers tend to have good support. Smaller or larger farms are being created that can process and sell their crops themselves, which impresses me greatly. In addition, farmers have a chance to use the latest tools, because there are a number of great developers and manufacturers, to which I also include us.
Can you advise farmers on how to treat the soil properly so that climate change affects them as little as possible?
There is no easy answer to that question, either. On the one hand, we have farmers who are trying to function as much as possible in harmony with nature and are willing to sacrifice even part of the proceeds or devote themselves to growing crops that are not among the most lucrative. On the other hand, there are conventional farmers who, in the eyes of many, "hunt the landscape". But the fact that they respond to the demand for crops and without them the production of basic food would be significantly more expensive is not much of a problem. Personally, I think the truth lies, as always, somewhere in the middle. It is certainly true that there are a number of things that need to be improved. And I think that if there were political will, it could be done almost immediately.
We cannot do without conventional agriculture if we want to remain self-resusproteive in at least some agricultural products. But it can be done significantly smarter, for example, by plugging in digital tools. I daresay that in a wide range of areas efficiency can be doubled by the involvement of automation of certain processes and data work.
In your work, you meet both conventional farmers and organic farmers. What is the biggest difference between these farmers and can you assess these approaches in terms of impact on the landscape?
I've already bitten this place, of course there's a difference between them. But I may be surprised to say that we are still not so bad at landscape care. Even conventional agriculture, when done according to rules and with reason, does not do so much damage in the context of other problems. I am much more alarmed by the way we lose quality land to the construction of logistics halls. Or how small the state's support for greener electricity generation is here and how much we trust coal.
Of course, I also know the cases of farmers who have broken free and really damaged a part of the landscape with their farming. But I stand by the fact that these are exceptions and we find them in every business. Moreover, it is often the state's bad policy that is to do with it. If there are benevolent standards for the navigating of the plough or the use of pesticides, why should we ask farmers to be stricter on themselves than the letter of the law? It should be remembered that ecological practices, if one wants to do them according to standards, are really huge and not for everyone. But approaches somewhere halfway can work for both groups in the future.
Do you have any encouraging message for Czech farmers?
Don't be skeptical of new technologies and especially those in farm management and data work. The revolution in access is taking place right now thanks to the digitisation of agriculture. One day it will be the standard, and if you learn it as soon as possible, you will fall off a huge amount of responsibilities that are now suffocating you unnecessarily. And the first step is simple, just give digitization a chance.
Lukáš Musil studied landscape engineering and biotech landscape engineering at the Faculty of Forestry and Timber Sciences of Mendel University in Brno Agdata.cz. At the same time, he works as an accredited advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture in the field of agriculture – plant production. He is himself an active farmer and in his free time he also devotes himself to beekeeping.