The University of Missouri has launched a new research centre to help farmers adopt sustainable agriculture by leveraging digital technologies and AI. The Digital Agriculture Research and Extension Center (DAREC) aims to utilise advanced technologies to increase agricultural productivity, sustainability and profitability.

Formed by a partnership between CAFNR, MU Extension and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service, the centre will explore key areas in agriculture such as crop production, soil health, precision livestock farming and engineering innovations through research by faculty and students, and collaboration with industry partners and agencies.

One component of the centre will be a field demonstration site located at MU’s South Farm called the MU Digital Farm. The farm will also be part of the Central Missouri Research, Extension and Education Center.

“The skills needed for today’s farmers are not the same as they were five to 10 years ago, and it’s important for us to train the next generation of farmers to adapt and make use of existing and future technologies,” said Shibu Jose, associate dean for research at the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR). “This is the future of farming in Missouri and elsewhere, and people are looking to us as a proven academic leader in this space.”

“We want to investigate the next generation of technology,” said Jianfeng Zhou, one of the centre’s co-directors and an MU associate professor of plant science and technology. “For both teaching and research purposes, it’s helpful to adopt the next-generation tools designed to improve the efficiency of agriculture.”

“By demonstrating new digital technologies at the digital farm, we will be able to document their benefits and use that information to show farmers and other stakeholders how to use these digital tools, many of which have already been developed but are not fully adopted yet by the agriculture industry,” Zhou said.

“The Digital Agriculture Research and Extension Center will work with our MU Extension specialists to put new digital agriculture technologies into the hands of Missouri farmers,” said Rob Kallenbach, associate dean of extension at CAFNR. “The information, demonstrations, trainings and research that will come out of this centre will benefit our Missouri agricultural industry for years to come.”