This presentation will 1）introduce the challenges of Chinese agriculture; 2）overview progresses in precision agriculture research to meet the double challenges of food security and sustainable development; 3) discuss the reasons of low adoption rate in production agriculture; and 4) provide some perspectives on future development of precision agriculture in China. 

Ian’s talk will highlight some of the unique activities and industries within New Zealand’s agricultural and horticultural production systems and their emphasis on export. This leads to an increased emphasis on producing high quality food at minimal environmental impact and cost.  The talk will argue that we are entering a new phase where the old definition of PA will be superseded by Digital Agriculture which will encompass a greater number of activities off farm, with a growing need to integrate off farm activities in order to achieve better  production feedback and environmental governance. His group’s work on hyperspectral imaging is illustrated as their first experience of working in this new data economy which they believe will significantly change the way they operate in the future. This change will be seen across the whole sector from research, production, processing and distribution to the final consumer.

Latin America is diversified and geographically enormous. Agriculture and production scale goes to extremes and precision agriculture practices can go from the traditional small farming handcrafting management to sophisticated high tech farms. Unfortunately, we do not have good information regarding adoption statistics, except from some specific situations, but it is possible to have a picture of what is going on in some countries, especially on crops like grains, sugar cane, coffee, vineyards and tropical fruits.