Could big data help farmers adapt to a changing climate? Posted on : Jul 03 - 2015

Big data could help farmers understand and adapt to weather variability, shoring up the future of the family farm in Australia.

The future prosperity of the family farm may depend on farmers' willingness to take up new technologies, according to American scientist Dr John Corbett.

Dr Corbett has been in Australia to address growers at the 2015 National Horticulture Convention about the benefits of using geo-analytics and big data to access better and more agronomic weather information.

The term "big data" is used to describe a massive volume of data so large it is difficult to process using traditional database and software techniques.

"Some of the weather variability that earth is experiencing and that farmers experience in their specific locations are things that are a little bit outside their experience. So better and more agronomic weather information can really enhance profitability, using science to help address some of that uncertainty," Dr Corbett said.  View more