From Fiber to Field: The Role of Rural Broadband in Emerging Agricultural Technology

 

The future of agriculture demands technology. Bringing broadband to agriculture-driven communities enables precision agriculture, which improves efficiencies and empowers farmers to make better production decisions. As the adoption of agricultural technology, ag tech, increases, the need for secure and robust fixed and mobile broadband connections does too.

 

The white paper, “From Fiber to Field: The Role of Rural Broadband in Emerging Agricultural Technology” by NTCA’s Vice President of Policy and Industry Innovation Josh Seidemann provides an overview of agricultural markets and technology in the United States and illustrates the need to develop and maintain broadband connectivity in rural U.S. agricultural regions.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that the “full potential” of ag tech would increase gross U.S. economic benefits by $47-$65 billion. However, ag tech adoption factors such as farm size and cost and the evolving demographics of today’s farmer are a big part of the discussion. From an ROI perspective, FCC economic studies indicate a causal relationship between broadband deployment and crop yields, which suggests that deployment enables adoption and in turn leads to increased usage for agricultural activities.

Overall, the demand for broadband connectivity on farms is anticipated to grow proportionally to broadband demand across other connected industries. Accordingly, the agricultural industry will have a need for increased volume, velocity, and variety among wired and wireless services to support a growing range of ag tech options. These advances are essential to supporting our agricultural industry and maintaining global competitiveness as the U.S. food import/export balances shift.