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Innovation is more than just doing something differently. The change must be an improvement. The improvement could be to use fewer resources, speed up a task, improve quality, or increase output. “Higher, Faster, Stronger” (the Olympic motto) captures the improvement side, but it is the change, or ‘break with the past,’ that provides the second key to innovation - doing things differently.
At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where the world comes to see what is new in electronics - a showcase for innovative products - it will be John Deere (the tractor maker) making the keynote speaker. John Deere was not even at the show in 2019! Bringing technological innovation to the collection of production data, combined with the locational precision of GPS, is revolutionizing field crop production for field crops and John Deere is a leader.
John Deere has been making tractors for many decades, with gradual improvements brought to new models every few years. Comparing one year’s tractor models to the next shows is incremental improvement (though sales staff will promote it as the ‘latest and greatest’). The innovation is marrying modern electronic and software technology. Now, instead of harvesting crops, growers are managing their field crops on an entirely new, smaller scale. Precision agriculture is born.
Are other trends going to succeed? One way to judge the chance of success is whether the hype precedes the economic benefits of the new technology. “Precision agriculture” emerged from the real observations that, for example, applying nutrients at different rates to individual plants would be an economic improvement: fertilizer would be directed where it does the most good. Nutrients are not applied at the same rate to an entire field - over-applying to some plants and leaving other plants without enough fertilizer. For irrigation, the technology is not at the plant level, but rather responding to the soil moisture in the local area within a field. In this case, ‘precision’ is responding to localized plant moisture needs and stresses.
The precision irrigation is based on measurement (soil moisture probes, and perhaps evapotranspiration) and adjusting irrigation rates accordingly. For most tree fruit growers who use soil moisture probes, the soil moisture probe information is observed and irrigation schedules are manually adjusted (from an informal survey of growers last year). The next step, and adding to the precision, is to control irrigation systems with automated valves. The valves are electronically opened or closed by a controller receiving input from the soil moisture probes.
To increase adoption of the advances in precise irrigation technology, funding is available for soil moisture probes and automated valves from the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) program. To further encourage its members, the BCFGA is providing $250 for growers to get an EFP in place. This is an opportunity to implement a practical, effective, precision irrigation system on orchards in BC.
It is clear that we cannot innovate everything all of the time. If that happened, things would be very inefficient; standard practices and routine ways of doing things increase efficiency. We can also streamline or simplify and make productivity gains without innovation. John Deere made these continuous improvements before it made the innovation leap by adding the innovative precision agriculture to its tractors.
Innovation has another characteristic, it is based on knowledge or analysis. Innovation is ‘insightful’, there is an ‘aha’ moment. Then the hard work begins to refine and perfect the innovation. An example of an innovation is the creation and introduction of many newer rootstocks in the recent decade or two, followed by a lot of research effort to determine the performance of the rootstock for the different scion varieties.
The innovation of grafting apples onto dwarfing rootstocks was insightful: shorter time to full production, more intensive use of land, and less time moving ladders! Once the new idea gained a foothold, there were many years of research and demonstration, trial and error, and learning before successful commercialization in BC. In fact, we are still at it - development of new rootstocks and varieties continues, perhaps even accelerates over time.
There is a lot of discussion among producers about anecdotal evidence on rootstock-scion performance under different growing conditions, showing a need for further research. Sometimes conditions change and the innovation needs to change: with climate change, we need to determine which rootstocks perform well in water deficits (drought) and extreme heat. The BCFGA is considering investing in rootstock-climate-change research in the coming years.
No discussion on innovation in the BC tree fruit sector could be complete without mentioning our unique innovations. We are world leaders in sterile insect technology used for Codling Moth. At the inception of the program, damage levels were 5% of the crop (about $5 million annually of wholesale value) and growing due to increasing resistance of Codling Moth to chemical controls. Now, average damage level is below the economic threshold of 0.2%, and pesticide control of Codling Moth has been minimized. Another unique innovation is the breeding program for cherries. Dr. Charles Lapins in the early 1970’s created the new Lapin cherry and this line has continued to evolve into ever-later ripening cherry varieties, giving BC cherry producers the first dibs on the cherries that are taking the world by storm. BC is truly a world leader with these two innovations in Sterile Insect Technology for Codling Moth and the creation of a new line of late season cherries. No hype here!
Agriculture has innovated through automation since the industrial revolution. In the information age, agriculture is innovating by adopting new remote sensing and computer processing technologies. This note has focused on practical technologies available now - the ones that are proven and beyond the hype. However, there are exciting new technologies emerging in machine intelligence, genomics, automation, and robotics that are being driven by the practical consideration of economic benefit. Innovation in agriculture looks to be accelerating. Growers will need to be both aware of new developments as well as more attentive to the economics of adopting new technology and production practices. Beware the hype and look for practical economic benefits!