Mark your calendars and plan on attending a virtual two day meeting of the Ag Tech Expo - The Future of Farming on Monday and Tuesday, May 10 - 11 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

US Specialty Crop Producers compete in the global market place and they can no longer compete on the basis of cheap land or labor, they must compete on the basis of technology and innovation. Looking to the future, the world will have to produce more food in the next 50 years than we have in the last ten thousand years since civilization began and farmers will have to accomplish this with fewer resources and less environmental impact Driven by innovation and new technology developed by the partnership between UF IFAS, agricultural producers and related industries, agriculture will continue to provide jobs and support economic well-being in Florida.

The developments in agricultural robotics, machine vision, ultra-precision farming; autonomous farming; artificial intelligence; machine vision, genomics and AI will drive a deep and far-reaching transformation of the way farming is carried out. These technologies coupled with AI are enabling a revolution which will eventually upend familiar norms in agrochemical supply, food safety, payroll and labor management, agricultural machine design, and in farming practices.

This development frontier has the wind in its sails, pushed by rapidly advancing and sustainable hardware and software technology trends, and pulled by structural and growing challenges and needs. In our assessment, these technology developments can no longer be dismissed as gimmicks or too futuristic. They are here to stay and will only grow in significance. Indeed, all players in the agricultural value chain will need to develop a strategy today to benefit from, or at least to safeguard against, this transformative trend.

The conference will feature visionary keynote speakers and concurrent seasons on such topics as:
• Agricultural Robotics
• GPS guidance systems
• Variable Rate Technology

• Remote Sensing
• UAS / Imagery Use in Agriculture Production
• UAS spray systems
• Computer based apps
• Genomics – Gene Editing
• AI
• IoT
• Harvesting Systems
• Computerized sorting and grading systems
• Record Keeping – food safety - Produce Traceability Initiative
• Broadband and 5G Technology
• Other

The conference will also feature a virtual trade show where vendors can highlight their products.

To register, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ag-tech-expo-the-future-of-farming-tickets-142756134441

Contact Gene McAvoy at 863-673-5939 or gmcavoy@ufl.edu for more info