Transcript 0:00 Talk to me. Information, news and entertainment on demand. WUS radio.com. 0:10 [on-hold music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the voice of IoT in our connected world, with your host, Peggy Smedley. Hello, listeners, and welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show. 0:26 We've been talking about the agriculture market and what's been happening, and my next guest is a regular on this show, and he knows all about modern ag. 0:35 He conducts a lot of research in the field, and he does a whole lot of other things in human infrastructure and the interaction and, uh, all talking about robots. So let me, uh... 0:46 Please welcome Joshua Peschel, Assistant Professor of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University. Josh, welcome to the show. Hey, Peggy. It's great to be back this month. Hey, Josh. 1:00 I got to start out right away with talking about the market, so I'm gonna throw some numbers at you. 1:05 You know, the digital agriculture market I was talking about in the first segment is expected to kind of move from this three billion dollar industry, I think, to around, I think a lot of these folks are saying something like eight billion, uh, during the next five years. 1:22 So you, more than anyone, really understand the ag market. 1:27 So I want you, for our listeners, to help us define what would be meant by digital agriculture, and what are the reasons, I guess, behind all this big dramatic growth that everybody's talking about. 1:42 I-- It's more than doubling, I guess, if you look at that number. Absolutely. So the way we, we look at digital agriculture, first, I'll, I'll give you a definition for that. 1:51 It's really the injection of tools and technologies that will optimize and advance actual on-farm production, the decision-making behind that. 2:02 And really at the heart of it is getting at the best kind of data you can and being able to make the best decisions. 2:10 I think with that, also accepting the fact that, um, cows and corn are no longer really some of the only commodities that come off the farm, that the data also comes off the farm. 2:21 And if you look at sort of the big picture goal of what digital agriculture is trying to do, it's, it's really trying to push forward and accelerate the adoption of these new, uh, sustainable technologies that'll inform the on-farm practices. 2:35 And I think that to speak to your question about, you know, why are we seeing this big bump, this doubling in the, in the marketplace, and it's really the improved timeliness of the data that's coming across. 2:49 So in the same way that we're able to make different and better decisions, whether it's transportation or the military or whatever, because we've got really good, fast coming across data. 3:00 In agriculture, we've long suffered from, okay, we can get this information, but maybe it's like a week later before we can make a decision on it. 3:08 And because we can now make decisions on the fly or we're starting to be able to, that's really, I think, pushing that market, uh, getting us the technology to get us the data to make decisions in a timely manner. 3:21 I, I think that's, that's what it's all about. So we're connecting a lot of things. We're connecting the hardware, we're connecting the, the fields, we're connecting the animals. 3:32 So in doing all that, we're using software and hardware. What's more important then? Is it the hardware? Is it the software in this digitization we talk about? 3:43 So I think right now, I think I would say that the, the software and the, the data that's being collected is really the most important thing. 3:51 You know, there's a lot of people working in the IoT space with sensors and new, you know, Wi-Fi chips and, and all that kind of stuff, and that stuff has a s- a strong value, and it continues to be pushed forward. 4:01 But if you think about a lot of the existing infrastructure, and even if you want to liken it to smart cities, it's much cheaper to put, um, sensors out and, let's say, retrofit a, a bridge or a wastewater treatment system. 4:14 It's much cheaper to, to retrofit a harvester, let's say, [lips smack] with a set of technology, but really bring the new and different into the software space. 4:24 It's much more easy to address that than I think it is a lot of the existing infrastructure in place. 4:29 So I'd say the big focus right now is on the software, and I think that's a long-term value proposition, um, because that in itself can continue to get better on, uh, the supplier side. So it's kind of interesting. 4:43 Now, you and I have talked. You've done a lot of work in kind of developing robots for agriculture, which kind of think of what inspired your work, and, and correct me if I'm wrong, in this disaster response community. 4:55 So kind of what helped you kind of to switch, I think, to, and, and, and what are some of the advances that have come out of doing so? 5:04 Because you've, you've done so much great work, and we've talked about so much of that already. So that's a, that's a good question. Um, so I, I did. I used to work in disaster response primarily. 5:16 And a, a reason for the change was that one of the ways in which we really learned the most that we needed to was when disasters happened. Of course, we never hope. 5:28 We hope that they never do happen, but that's when we really learned. 5:31 And so where I was wanting to go with technology was being able to advance it and improve it at a pace that was a, a little bit different than, than waiting for the next hurricane, so to speak. 5:44 Um, I think there are a lot of really good people working in the disaster response 5:49 space, but I wanted to be in a, a position where I was kind of more unique and, uh, was able to bring some of the inspired technologies, the little shoebox-sized robots that we send down into collapsed buildings where, you know, people and dogs can't go. 6:04 We were able to effectively take them in a new and different direction and send them into soybean fields to image the under part of the, the canopy, and that let us know, you know, how much water they were getting and how much sunlight and how to, you know, optimize that crop production. 6:18 So it was a-It was the ability to go in a new and different direction at a price point, I think, that was much lower. 6:24 You know, we used to talk about robots when I was in disaster response in increments of like fifty thousand dollars a robot, and now we talk about them in terms of five hundred dollars, and if you want some better sensors, you go a little bit more. 6:35 So bringing, you know, bringing the ability to, to, to work in a more expeditious manner is, is really not unlike the people that got into disaster ro-robotics in the first place, who came out of the plan-planetary missions activities, where you're spending billions of dollars to go to Mars. 6:51 Okay, we don't do that that often and it costs a lot of money. And so it was the next logical transition after disaster response to go into agriculture. And the truth be told, I think we can affect a lot of people. 7:01 So those are just some of the reasons. But think about that right now. I mean, if we have this crisis where we have all of this crowding of people and the population's growing, we're gonna have a disaster. 7:12 I mean, it's really kind of true. I mean, we need to be thinking about solutions for ag right now because we're headed for a giant crisis, right? I mean, that's what's happening right now. 7:23 Well, we have a lot of people to feed. Overcrowding, you know. For sure, yeah. A lot of people to feed and a lot of demand for, uh, protein. 7:31 And the truth is, we have a lot more people that are, you know, coming on board with a lot more economic resources to be able to spend on, on those types of commodities. 7:40 And so being able to meet the needs of the people and their economic desires, I, I think that's a critical part of this. Well, and, and, and I think right now all of these, this ag, digital agriculture is so critical. 7:54 It's one that we need to... We're not talking enough about it, but it's essential. 7:58 We've, we've only got about a minute left to go, and I really want our listeners to know where they can get more information on the research you're doing, because you're doing a whole lot of research, uh, right now. 8:09 T-tell us where they can go to get more information on what you're doing, because it's some great stuff you're doing. Sure. Well, we've, we've got websites out there. We've got some papers. 8:18 The easiest place to go to get a bigger picture view is just our department here, uh, Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State. 8:26 It's abe.iastate.edu, or you could go to my own personal website, uh, where we talk about some of our activities. That's just peschelgroup.org, and that's where you'll find us. 8:36 Well, Josh, it's always great to have you on. We've got to have you talking more this month. 8:41 We might have to bring you back just to have you talk more about what's going, because it's all month on ag, so this is your specialty. 8:47 But thanks for being with us, and we've, uh, you know, got to ta-- This is such a great area to talk about, so thanks. I appreciate it. 8:53 So, uh, you guys just heard, that's Josh Peschel, who's the assistant professor of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University. Josh, thanks again for being with us. 9:03 All right, listeners, we are out of time for this segment of the show and the show as always. So remember, we are broadcast live every Tuesday at twelve PM. 9:11 You can go up to our website at connectedworld.com to get the whole article that we've been doing. The whole month long will be on ag and what we're gonna do to help this overcrowding and everything else. 9:22 You want to learn about the digitization of agriculture and everything else. And you can go up to the peggysmedleyshow.com to get any of these great segments. 9:30 And so anything else you want to see all month long, we'll be talking about it. And we're gonna also be coming to you live from Microsoft's show. So stick around for that. 9:40 We've got a lot of great special segments coming from there as well. So this is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and relevant technology. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. 9:52 Have an awesome week. [upbeat music] With great technology comes great responsibility. 10:05 Follow Internet of Things tech expert and futurist Peggy Smedley, repeatedly ranked as a top IoT and M2M influencer. 10:12 Go to peggy_smedley on Twitter for her take on the latest tech news and lively interviews with other industry insiders on her weekly radio show. Visit twitter.com and search for peggy_smedley to follow her today. 10:27 [upbeat music] Video consumption is on the rise. So to reach this audience, Constructek magazine created Constructek TV. 10:39 Constructek TV helps construction professionals leverage emerging solutions to better their business. Tune in to constructek.tv to catch the latest show on the first and third Tuesday of each month. 10:50 Like, view and subscribe to constructek.tv, bringing dynamic video to construction. 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