The Gualco Group, Inc. is a long-standing friend of and advocate for agriculture and expert in natural resources issues and public policy. Our pro bono effort, the AgTech Roundtable, convenes farmers, tech developers and senior regulators in our downtown Sacramento office. Tech developers fashion on-farm applications. Regulators explain their market-driving rules.
Our two-year-old AgTech Roundtable is making a small but valuable contribution to the future of ag tech. We’ve held the first “Apps for Ag” hackathon for open-source software, led by representatives of the California Association of Pest Control Advisers (CAPCA), West Hills Community College District, and USDA. A second is being planned with our friends at the UC Davis World Food Center. We’re working with the California Dept. of Technology, California Public Utilities Commission and California Farm Bureau Federation to expand wireless broadband in disadvantaged rural areas. Without wireless broadband, high tech…does…not…work!
Irrigation management software and cell phone apps are at the forefront of ag tech development, of course. Patrick Dosier, a CAPCA member and agronomist, discusses this new integrated technology and future of food here:
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2015/07/06/apps-help-farmers-with-efficiency-during-the-drought/
And stay tuned to this space for news of the second Apps for Ag, tentatively scheduled for Dec. 1-2 on the UC Davis campus.