The Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development’s (DPIRD) eConnected Grainbelt project opened the WA Internet of Things (IoT) DecisionAg grant program initiative designed to assist in overcoming challenges that remain with regards to on-farm connectivity.
The grant program launched in 2019 with 15 projects installing different types of technologies to facilitate practice change in the industry on 63 host-farm sites across the south west agricultural region of WA. Details of the funded projects can be viewed at WA IoT DecisionAg Grant Program.
The on-farm connectivity network solutions on host-farms installed include both low and high bandwidth technologies with Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) using the LoRaWAN, SigFox and CatM1 communication protocols, and higher bandwidth on-farm Wi-Fi networks and the 3G/4G mobile network.
A total of 232 IoT sensors and devices were installed on the host farms across the State, including weather stations, soil probes, tank monitors, rain gauges and other devices.
Each of the projects developed a case study, intended to assist a wider audience to evaluate and build knowledge on the technologies installed by the projects to assist decision-making and support the change management process. The case studies completed to date have been compiled in the 'Future Farming: the road to real-time remote on-farm monitoring' document downloadable from this page.
Refer also to the 'External Links' section at the right-hand side of this page to view an overview of the program learnings presented at the 2021 GRDC Grains Research Updates in Perth or download the WA DecisionAg IoT Program Summary Paper, "The road to real-time remote on-farm monitoring" from this page.
If you would like an accessible version of either publication, please request a copy by contacting megan.abrahams@dpird.wa.gov.au