With 30 years of career in agricultural technologies, Pavel Gnip is considered one of the main experts in precision farming in Czechia. He has been a technology manager for the AGCO group for 12 years, scanning all sorts of innovations in the sector and is now head of crop production in a cooperative farm in his country. “I have had a privileged position, working in AGCO, as I was covering a large region in the centre and south of Europe, from Czechia to the Western Balkan region – he explains – differences with other regions of Europe were already quite evident, in terms of agricultural productivity. The reason? Not just technologies, but also and mainly the human capital. What I learned is that we need better prepared people at all levels of farming, from farm management to making the right decisions on operations, and also within universities and extension services, to deliver efficient support, when that is needed”.
“In the last decade – he goes on – I have definitely seen progress in agricultural universities. We also have a growing community of companies and individuals with good command of data technologies. But I see a gap at the level of high schools. For those in age 15-20, the education system has many gaps. Most of the knowledge students have in agriculture actually come from their parents, if these are involved in farming. There is little in technical schools that encourages young people to take up careers in agriculture. I am talking essentially about my country, but I would not be surprised to learn this is a common situation in the region as a whole”.
One point Gnip is clear about is that technologies and machinery cannot solve the problem, if they are not managed efficiently. “In this sense – he insists – we need people that understand data and that are able to choose how to intervene, that is choose what technologies to opt for”. With the sheer amount of data available to farmers today, that space between obtaining data and making something out of them becomes fundamental, and not necessarily an easy one in which to navigate. “We are dealing with complexity – says Gnip – we have so many data sources, from soil, satellites, from scanning or multispectral cameras. We need to create a system where people can also share data to exchange knowledge and improve. This can be very beneficial for smaller farms”.
Datafication in agriculture can also offer interesting career prospect to girls. “We still need people on tractors – add Gnip – but we also need many other profiles in using AI or running data analysis. I see more girls involved in farming studies. I think it’s a good thing, as mixed groups tend to work better”.