Growing Smarter in the Mallee 2022
A Regional Summit
An initiative of the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre
was held on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 May 2022
In May 2022 the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre held the Growing Smarter in the Mallee Summit. Growers, industry and the education sector came together to learn more about the latest innovations in horticultural production at the Growing Smarter in the Mallee Regional Summit.
The two-day event was held at the SuniTAFE SMART Farm and delegates were able to hear and see what was happening in remote sensing and smart data systems, irrigation automation, robotics and yield estimation. Through speakers, practical demonstrations, workshops and farm tours, delegates were able to hear firsthand about the next generation AgTech applications and how they will enable growers to grow smarter and more sustainably.
Earlier in the year, the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre bought together a program that showcased cutting edge, innovative and industry applications that addressed many of the challenges in horticulture. Details of the program are listed below. The program booklet can also be downloaded.
Practical demonstrations, workshops, farm tours and trade stalls were held during the lunch and tea breaks.
Physical copies of the program were available to delegates at the event but can still be downloaded here.
Thursday 5 May 2022
When | What | Who | Company | Subject |
---|---|---|---|---|
10.00am | Launch: Including Welcome to Country, venue and conference introduction, summit structure and housekeeping. | Arron Wood, MC Arron Wood Master of Ceremonies (MC), Growing Smarter in the Mallee 2022 Arron is a sustainable business expert and former Deputy Lord Mayor for the City of Melbourne, and is a News Ltd Telstra Micro Business Award winner. At the pulse of what makes Melbourne an incredible city, Arron is Chair of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and currently serves on the South East Water Board, and previously Chaired the Melbourne Ecocity World Summit Advisory Board and was a member of the Fisherman’s Bend Ministerial Advisory Committee. Arron grew up in Mildura, spending his early years campaigning to save the River Murray. In 2020, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to local government, to the environment, and to the community of Melbourne. | Growing Smarter in the Mallee | Welcome |
Aunty Ronny Harradine | Welcome to Country | |||
Mary-Anne Thomas MP | Minister for Agriculture | Summit launch | ||
Leonie Burrows | MRIC Strategic Advisory Panel | Introduction to the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre | ||
Anne Mansell | Dried Fruits Australia | Challenges and issues facing horticulture | ||
11.00am | Robotics/automation: Opportunities and challenges of developing and implementing automated horticultural production processes with robotics. Facilitator: Stephen Bennett, Merbein Robotics | Dr Robert Ross Dr Robert Ross Senior Lecturer, Director of RAMPS Research Lab; Head, Electronics and Robotics Engineering, Department of Engineering, La Trobe University Robert's research is related to robotics, sensors and mechatronics. His PhD involved autonomous imaging of car undercarriages using a catadioptric imaging system mounted on a mobile robot platform. He has also been researching in novel optical flow algorithms used in robot localisation along with mobile robot drain inspection techniques, agricultural robotic applications and applications of machine vision. Additionally Robert has been involved in the development of low-power embedded systems and sensory packages used for environmental and application specific monitoring. Robert's R&D heavily tends towards creating functional prototypes and is keen to employ his considerable background in embedded systems and robotics to actually make things work - rather than just modelling them. Robert is also the director of the RAMPS R&D group which is a research group aiming to solve real world problems related to Robotics, Automation, Mechatronics and Sensing by creating functional Prototypes. | RAMPS, La Trobe Uni | Automation of dried-fruit cordon pruning |
Hunter Jay Hunter Jay CEO, Ripe Robotics Hunter is the co-founder and CEO of Ripe Robotics. Hunter has a varied and technical background, with experience as a software engineer focused on artificial intelligence. Ripe Robotics is a startup working on automation in agriculture, starting with the harvesting of apples, oranges, and stone fruit. | CEO, Ripe Robotics | Fruit picking robot in Goulburn Valley orchards | ||
Ashley Rootsey Ashley Rootsey Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Project Manager, Food Agility CRC Ashley manages a series of R&D projects exploring the opportunities for automation and efficiency gains across numerous agricultural sectors. Alongside commercial partners The Yield, Yamaha Motor Co, Bosch and Treasury Wine Estates, his latest project explores the utility of spray robots in wine production, and the operational and farm management benefits that may be unlocked by its rollout. Ashley has prior experience working across a suite of innovative technology-driven projects in the agriculture and food production sector, and aims to improve the ability of research in this space to be translated into commercialised, scalable outcomes. | CRC Food Agility | Automated horticultural production | ||
12.00pm | Lunch break | |||
12.00pm | Workshops, demonstrations & SuniTafe SMART Farm tour | |||
1.30pm | Remote sensing – sponsored by Select Harvests: Use of remote sensing tools to help identify orchard management interventions regarding pests, irrigation and nutrients. Facilitator: Ben Brown, Select Harvests | Pablo Zarco-Tejada Professor Pablo Zarco-Tejada Associate Dean Graduate Research, FVAS School of Agriculture and Food, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences (FVAS), and Department of Infrastructure Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT) University of Melbourne Pablo is Professor in Remote Sensing and Precision Agriculture at the University of Melbourne. He leads HyperSensLab focused on remote sensing for crop stress detection using hyperspectral and thermal images acquired by manned and unmanned aircraft. He received the degree in Agricultural Engineering from Spain, M.Sc. degree in Remote Sensing from the U.K., and a Ph.D. in Earth and Space Science from Canada. He has been a faculty member at the University of California, Davis, USA, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (CSIC, Spain), and Senior Scientist at the European Commission. Highly Cited Researcher in 2019 & 2020, he is the author of more than 150 papers published in international journals. He is Associate Editor of Remote Sensing of Environment and European Journal of Agronomy journals, and has received awards in Spain, the United Kingdom, and Canada. | University of Melbourne | Remote sensing & precision agriculture |
Scott Gillet Scott Gillet Customer Success Advisor, Ceres Imaging Scott has been part of Ceres Imaging since 2018, where he works with Australian customers to ensure that the imagery and data they receive contributes to improving their production and sustainability. Prior to Ceres, Scott worked in a range of roles in natural resources management and agriculture, including running his own mapping business and providing land management advice to farmers working to ameliorate salinity and land degradation issues. Trying to ensure that remote sensing insights are accessible and understandable to growers is something that's always interesting and rewarding. | Ceres Imaging – Loxton | Remote sensing & irrigation | ||
Andy Chambers Andy Chambers Managing Director, AirborneLogic Pty Ltd Andy is an innovator with a particular interest in embracing agri-technology for sustainable food production. He is also a specialist in water management and a sustainability change agent helping organisations to embed sustainability and embrace positive change. As Managing Director at AirborneLogic, Andy is using cutting edge technology to assist land managers to better understand and adopt sustainable land management practices. He is an accomplished rural facilitator and known for implementing projects with practical and cost-effective outcomes. Trained in developing systems approaches for sustainability, implementing environment management systems (EMS) and the Freshcare environmental code national training the trainer, Andy is always seeking innovative ways to assist the change process. Andy is a member of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) and the Upper Wakefield Landcare Group (SA) and is engaged with a national network of Australia’s leading environmental and sustainable land management, food producer and agricultural and horticultural research professionals. | Airborne Logic | Remote sensing & horticulture | ||
2.30pm | Yield estimation: Use of innovative approaches to estimate future measures of production including yield and quality. Facilitator: Dr Zel Coetzee, AgVic Smart Farm Dr Zelmari Coetzee Senior Research Scientist, Agriculture Victoria Zelmari is a Mildura-based Senior Research Scientist with Agriculture Victoria. She has extensive research experience in the physiology of grape vines and almonds both in Australia and in her native South Africa. She gained her PhD within the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production. Since joining AV Zelmari has been part of a larger research program on almond productivity and on developing future almond production systems. The Mildura SmartFarm is the platform Zelmari is using to investigating the design and performance of more intensive production systems and assessing new technologies In this role she has developed the use of LiDAR to visualise almond tree architecture and simulate the impact of pruning strategies. She has also investigated the drawing down of soil water to develop benchmark “on” and “off” points for sensor outputs in relation to autonomous irrigation management. In addition to her knowledge of plant physiology and grapevine and almond agronomy, she has also gained experience in climatology, geographical information systems and remote sensing. | James Underwood James Underwood Co-Founder, Green Atlas James is an expert in perception systems for field robotics - the study of how outdoor robots and seeing machines make sense of their world, using science and technology in multi-modal sensing, data fusion and mapping. James has applied his research to a number of industry applications around the world including mining, defence and agriculture, with a primary focus on mapping technology for the horticulture industry. In 2018 James co-founded Green Atlas to commercialise orchard mapping, to provide farms with better data for their decision making and operations. | Green Atlas | Fruit counting & yield estimation |
Daniel Pelliccia Daniel Pelliccia Rubens Technologies Pty Ltd Daniel is a physicist and entrepreneur. He started his career working in particle accelerator technology, imaging and sensing. Entrepreneur and consultant since 2014, Daniel currently works at the interface between science and industry, to turn exciting research ideas into commercial products. Some of his clients include the Department of Primary Industries (WA), the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, and Agriculture Victoria (VIC). Daniel founded Rubens Technologies in early 2018 to develop and market innovative light sensing analytics for the agrifood industry. Rubens Technologies offers a quality system for the fresh fruit supply chain using a combination of spectral sensors and machine learning. | Rubens Technologies | Yield & quality estimation | ||
Guy Davidson Guy Davidson Head of Growth, Onside Guy is the Head of Growth at Onside and was the fifth employee back in 2019. Guy has helped grow the company from a grassroots start up, predominantly focused on OH&S in the dairy sector, to the company it is today - with over 30 staff and 36,000 users across 4,000 rural businesses in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Guy has worked with customers across all rural sectors - including orchards, vineyards, dairy, poultry and livestock - to help improve their operations, safety and biosecurity through Onside's digital toolkit. He moved to Adelaide from Onside's HQ in Christchurch, New Zealand to ensure the successful expansion into Australia and to give Onside's customers the on-the-ground, personal support they deserve. | Onside | Handheld monitoring tools | ||
3.30pm | Tea break | |||
3.45pm | Workshops | |||
4.30pm | Innovative energy: Innovative approaches to future fuel sources applicable to horticulture. Facilitator: Brett Millington, MRC Brett Millington CEO, Mildura Regional Development Born and raised in Mildura, Brett has over 20 years’ experience at an executive level in the economic development and utilities industries. He was an inaugural Board member of Mildura Regional Development (MRD) following its formation in 2017 before being appointed CEO in 2019. Prior to this, he spent several years as the Program Director for Intelligent Water Networks, the research and collaboration partnership supporting the Victorian Water corporations in their pursuit of innovation. In addition, he currently holds positions on the Victorian Government Regional Partnership for the Mallee, the Strategic Advisory Panel for the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre and the Mallee Hydrogen Technology Cluster. Educated with a Bachelor of Science with honours from the University of Melbourne initially, Brett also holds post Graduate qualifications in Business Administration from the University of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. | Associate Professor Mohsen Talei Associate Professor Mohsen Talei Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, the University of Melbourne Mohsen is an academic in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the degree coordinator of the Master of Energy Systems. Mohsen joined the University of Melbourne as a staff member in 2014, having previously completed post-doctoral research at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and a PhD at the University of Melbourne. Mohsen has 18 years of industry and academic research experience in the broad area of energy with a focus on low-emission energy technologies and alternative fuels such as hydrogen and biomethane. Mohsen’s research involves a significant use of high-performance computing to develop reliable models for simulating cleaner gas turbines and reciprocating engines. | University of Melbourne | Fuel from crop waste |
Joe Kremzer Joe Kremzer GM Policy, Australian Hydrogen Council Joe is a regulatory and policy professional with 20 years experience in the Australian energy sector. He is passionate about engaging with government, industry and community stakeholders to facilitate Australia’s transition to a low emissions energy future. He joined the Australian Hydrogen Council in January 2021 following four years at Hydro Tasmania as Head of Regulatory Affairs for their Momentum Energy retail brand and has held similar roles with other energy retail businesses and within the Tasmanian and Victorian Governments. Joe holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Tasmania and a Graduate Diploma of Journalism from Deakin University. | Hydrogen Council | Hydrogen opportunities in horticulture | ||
John O'Connor
John O’Connor Energy Research Officer, NSW DPI John currently works with NSW DPI as an Energy Research Officer with the Energy Efficient Solutions project. This role has promoted energy efficiency and explored new low carbon alternatives. He has been involved in agriculture for all his life, after being a “family farm slave”, teacher and African tour guide! For the past 30 years, John has worked with the NSW Government’s agriculture services across pastures, livestock and research areas and recently joined the International Committee on Irrigation and Drainage working group on the Food/Water/Energy Nexus. He and his wife, Jo, have 5 daughters and run a 350 acre farm near Bega, which they have been making more energy efficient. | Energy Smart Farming | Hydrogen use in farming | ||
5.30pm | Close Day 1 | Arron Wood, MC | Lessons learnt | |
7.00pm | EvokeAg Summit Dinner at Willow & Ivie: Book a spot with your ticket. Summit dinner details Summit Dinner, sponsored by evokeAGThere are still some tickets available to the evokeAG Summit Dinner on Thursday evening at the stunning venue, Willow & Ivie. Event detailsWhen: Thursday 5 May 2022, 6.30pm – 9.30pm Location: Willow & Ivie, 1256 Irymple Ave, Nichols Point, 3501. Onsite parking is available. Get directions. Master of Ceremonies: Leonie Burrows, Chair Mallee Regional Innovation Centre Strategic Advisory Panel Keynote Speaker: Matthew Pryor, Tenacious Ventures on Future Forces: AgriFutures report Plan your journeyDriving: Willow & Ivie is just a 7-minute drive from the SuniTAFE farm and Mildura town centre and there is plenty of parking on site. Shuttle Bus: We have organised a shuttle bus to take attendees to the venue from the town centre (Quality Hotel Mildura Grand). You can purchase tickets to this service at the registration desk at the event on Thursday. Shuttle Cost: This will be $10 per-person and we accept cash payments only. Places are limited, so we do advise having a plan B. Taxi: We encourage you to utilise ride shares such as Uber and the local taxi services:
evokeAGThe Summit Dinner was made possible by our generous dinner sponsor in evokeAG. evokeAG. connects the agrifood innovation community across the Asia Pacific and around the world. They do this by providing a digital platform and a premier agrifood tech event where farmers share their experiences, startups pitch their potential, scientists showcase their discoveries, global business leaders share their insights and industry experts debate their opinions. evokeAG. provides innovative news and views from around the world that elevates the conversation and connects the agrifood innovation community, every day. We look forward to a celebratory evening with you as we launch the first Growing Smarter in the Mallee Summit. | Matthew Pryor Matthew Pryor Co-founder and Managing Partner, Tenacious Ventures Matthew is co-founder and Managing Partner at Tenacious Ventures. He was previously co-founder of Observant, an Australian agtech pioneer acquired by Jain Irrigation in February 2017. He was the founding chair of Rocket Seeder, a food & ag innovation accelerator, chair of the Australian Government Agriculture 4.0 Task Force, a founding board member of the Australian AgriTech Association, and a current member of the CSIRO Agriculture & Food Advisory Committee. He is passionate about promoting Australian agri-food innovation globally. | Tenacious Ventures | Future Forces: AgriFutures report |
This program is updated regularly, but may be subject to change prior to the event.
Friday 6 May 2022
When | What | Who | Company | Subject |
---|---|---|---|---|
7.00am | Farm tour and breakfast: Tour the nearby AgVic Smart Farm. Tours of the SuniTAFE SMART Farm are also available during lunch breaks. Bookings are essential. Tour information Agriculture Victoria SmartFarm Tour Agriculture Victoria Research’s (AVR) Mildura SmartFarm has been established to improve current management practices and develop future management systems, primarily for almonds. Six experimental plantings – each addressing specific industry-related questions that align with industry’s strategies – cover 16 ha. Several technologies are implemented to describe and manage the experimental plantings and include soil and plant water monitoring systems (soil moisture sensors and dendrometers), 3D modelling technology (LiDAR), proximal and remote phenotyping (multi- and hyperspectral imaging) and visual crop protection (bird laser deterrent system). The farm-wide connectivity needed is achieved using 5G WiFi and LoraWAN. The Mildura SmartFarm tour will provide a brief overview of the experimental plantings and focus on the validation of an autonomous closed-loop irrigation system through the extensive soil moisture sensor network installed in the higher density almond planting. AVR is also implementing new digital traceability technologies with a focus on unique tree, fruit and nut identification software and services which will be demonstrated during the tour. This research builds on AVR’s SmartFarm tree database and develops systems and services using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and is part of Agriculture Victoria’s Traceability & Food to Market programs. | Dr Zelmari Coetzee & Dr Mike Treeby Dr Zelmari Coetzee Senior Research Scientist, Agriculture Victoria Zelmari is a Mildura-based Senior Research Scientist with Agriculture Victoria. She has extensive research experience in the physiology of grape vines and almonds both in Australia and in her native South Africa. She gained her PhD within the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production. Since joining AV Zelmari has been part of a larger research program on almond productivity and on developing future almond production systems. The Mildura SmartFarm is the platform Zelmari is using to investigating the design and performance of more intensive production systems and assessing new technologies to assist in orchard management. In this role she has developed the use of LiDAR to visualise almond tree architecture and simulate the impact of pruning strategies. She has also investigated the drawing down of soil water to develop benchmark “on” and “off” points for sensor outputs in relation to autonomous irrigation management. In addition to her knowledge of plant physiology and grapevine and almond agronomy, she has also gained experience in climatology, geographical information systems and remote sensing. Dr Michael Treeby Senior Research Scientist, Horticulture Production Sciences, Agriculture Victoria Michael is based at Agriculture Victoria’s Mildura site and has nearly 40 years’ research experience in perennial horticultural cropping systems in northwest Victoria and southwest NSW. | AgVic Smart Farm | Farm tour and breakfast |
9.00am | Autonomous vehicles – sponsored by Olam Food Ingredients: Challenges and advantages of innovative developments in driverless vehicles in horticulture. Facilitator: Brett Pringle, Olam Orchards | Alex Barber & Daniel Edwards | GUSS | Autonomous vehicles for spraying |
Andrew Glare | Haeuslers – agents for John Deere | Autonomous vehicles | ||
Cam Clifford Cam Clifford Managing Director, AME Group Cam has over 20 years of experience in the rural-based capital equipment industry with most of this time focused on spray application technology and development of innovative mechanised equipment for the horticultural industry internally and alongside international partners. Cam commenced his career in New Zealand as part of the FMR Group before relocating to Australia in 2013 to focus on developing solutions for Australia’s viticulture and horticulture markets. He has a deep connection with the global horticulture industry at multiple levels and has led the company with commitment and passion to enabling Australian growers to improve their crop protection outcomes and increase mechanisation in a market that’s experiencing ever-increasing labour pressures. | AME Group | Retrofitting automation | ||
10.00am | Data driven decisions: Innovative approaches to help integrate multiple data sources to support operational and production management decisions. Facilitator: Peter O'Donnell, SC Farms Peter O'Donnell Executive Director, SC Farms Peter completed an economics degree in Adelaide, graduating in 1992. In 2001, he founded Southern Cross Business Advisers (SCBA), which grew into a four-partner organisation with a team of 30 professionals. Southern Cross Farms (SC Farms) was created in 2006 as part of the wider SCBA group. In 2013, Peter purchased SC Farms outright. SC Farms (SCF) is a farm management company that provides operational, financial and organisational support for investors in irrigated horticulture. SCF manage farming operations in Victoria, SA, NSW, NT and Queensland. Experience is across many crops with strongest focus on citrus, almonds, grapes and avocadoes. As Executive Director of the SC Farms group, his responsibility lies with strategy development, investor liaison and acquisitions. Peter is also involved in many community organisations. This includes Chair of Mildura Airports Pty Ltd, Director of NMLLEN, Chair of Mallee Regional Trade Training Centre, Finance Committee member of the Mildura Specialist School and Committee member of Imperial FNC. | Jeremy Duniam | FieldIn | Data integration for management |
Damien Heintze Damien Heintze Sales and Busines Development Manager – Australia, CropX Damien has been involved in the agricultural and natural resource management industries for the past 25 years. Growing up on a dryland cereal farm near Murrayville in Victoria’s mallee, he gained an appreciation of the importance of sustainable agricultural practices, conservation of water and the beauty of living on the land. Damien has more recently been involved in the water and soil health sectors, managed Australia’s largest water market, waterexchange.com.au and now with CropX Technologies, works with irrigators all over our country to make better, more informed irrigation decisions. Damien holds a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Management (Flinders University of SA), Diploma in Corporate Governance (AICD) and has been a previous Director of Lower Murray Water Corporation and elected Mildura Rural City Councillor. He now sits on the Board of Directors for Trinity Lutheran College Mildura where his daughter attends. | CropX | Digital agriculture in horticultural production | ||
Roei Yaakobi Roei Yaakobi CEO, Tie Up Farming Roei grew up on a farm in Israel and has extensive experience in the agricultural industry. Over the last decade, he has delivered disruptive projects across the horticulture sector. His passion is the agricultural technology sector and working with farmers. | Tie Up Farming | Data integration for horticultural production | ||
11.00am | Irrigation integration – sponsored by Lower Murray Water: Innovative systems to integrate irrigation systems with agronomic and other factors. Facilitator: Anthony Couroupis, Lower Murray Water Anthony Couroupis Managing Director, Lower Murray Water Anthony is Sunraysia born and commenced as Lower Murray Water’s Managing Director in July 2019. Anthony has almost 30 years’ experience in water and natural resources management, primarily associated with irrigation in southern NSW. This experience included both commercial and government roles. Anthony is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia. | Tristan Steventon
Tristan Steventon Director, StevTech Tristan grew up on a mixed farming enterprise in Central West NSW. Prior to returning to agriculture, he spent 20 years in the Australian Army during which time he worked with cutting edge drones and sensors. Since returning to Central West NSW in 2016 he foundered StevTech, an agri-tech company at the forefront of agricultural innovation that uses drones, artificial intelligence, and all sources of agricultural data to improve the productivity of Australian farms. We are drone and data specialists. StevTech is a graduate of the DPI Global Ag-Tech Ecosystem (GATE) business accelerator program and works in broad acre, horticulture and viticulture. StevTech strives to make world-class high-tech solutions accessible and simple. We scan the globe for high tech solutions to real world farming problems. If a solution doesn’t exist, we develop one. | StevTech | Drones for irrigation |
John Pargenter John Pargeter Business Development Manager, SWAN Systems John has had a long career in agriculture and sustainability, specifically covering water resource management, irrigation infrastructure, on-farm irrigation management and hands on management of horticulture/viticulture projects both in Australia and overseas. In order to better manage his own 200-hectare wine grape property located at Langhorne Creek, John was an early adopter of relevant technologies and actively sought out agtech solutions that would help him improve the management of his own water resources and on-farm performance. In recent years this search led him to SWAN Systems, who were making big inroads into the irrigation management field. Not long after this he joined the SWAN Systems team, representing the company in South-East Australia. John is a past Chairman of the Angas Bremer Water Management Committee, Langhorne Creek Wine Industry Council and was a founding director of the Creeks Pipeline Company. He studied Viticulture at Charles Sturt University. | Swan Systems | Software integration for irrigation systems | ||
Hamish Roy | Phytech | Yield monitoring & irrigation integration | ||
12.00pm | Lunch | |||
12.00pm | Workshops, demonstrations & SuniTafe SMART Farm tour | |||
1.30pm | Traceability – sponsored by AusIndustry: Recent developments to improve traceability in supply chain management. Facilitator: Paul Henderson, AusIndustry | Kieran Murphy Kieran Murphy Technology Development and Spatial Information Sciences Research Manager, Agriculture Victoria Research Kieran is currently leading a traceability foundations research program focusing on Horticulture tree crops traceability systems utilising sophisticated spatial technology and new and emerging sensor systems. Kieran has established research technologies and support systems including demonstration and visualisation services via Agriculture Victoria Research digital twin Virtual SmartFarm platform. He is leading the development of automated channels for information utilising API services with an aim that these will become the emerging standards for industry exchange of information. Kieran facilitated the deployment of the Victorian Governments central API platform to support Agriculture Victoria’s participation in the national soil information systems framework and is developing a framework for data federation that will support existing and new AgTech collaborations and partnerships. Kieran is currently based in AVR’s AgriBio facility and works at the Tatura SmartFarm supporting AVR’s research and innovation agenda. | Agriculture Victoria (AgVic) | Framework & standards |
Nathan Hancock Nathan Hancock CEO, Citrus Australia Since his appointment as CEO in late 2017, Nathan has led new initiatives in expanding market access, fruit quality and strengthening biosecurity. He has expanded the business in that time to meet growing international demand for Australian citrus and also to advocate for the needs of Australian growers to government. He was recognised for his leadership and representation of the citrus industry during the citrus canker outbreak in 2018 and subsequent recovery efforts. Nathan first joined Citrus Australia in 2011. Before taking the reins as CEO, he implemented maturity and quality standards in the national industry and improved industry statistics, including the citrus tree census, national plantings database, and production forecast model. | Citrus Australia | Citrus project | ||
Jeff Scott Jeff Scott CEO, Australian Table Grape Association (ATGA) Jeff is a central point of communication for stakeholders, and a conduit between industry and government, and represents the table grape industry on several regional, state and national groups. He has been instrumental in the development and expansion of Australia’s table grape industry on a global stage. Jeff's representation and advocacy, along with that of the ATGA board and growers, has allowed the industry to gain market access to a range of key global markets, and improve access in previously restricted areas – increasing the value of Australia’s table grape exports from $50M in 2005 to $623M in 2020. Jeff has been involved in increasing the overall quality and consumer acceptance of Australian table grapes to an all-time high, and enriching innovation and traceability practices within industry to enhance Australia’s reputation of a globally recognised high-quality product. | Australian Table Grape Association (ATGA) | Table-grape pilot: problem solving | ||
Michael Dossor Michael Dossor General Manager, Result Group Michael is a well-known packaging industry personality and general manager of Result Group. He is an active industry contributor, participating in education forums and on advisory groups helping to shape the packaging industry’s future. Michael is passionate about identifying new packaging technologies, processes and materials with the potential to drive innovation whilst also being committed to achieve greater sustainability and food waste control in the packaging space. He also has a keen interest in transforming brands' packaging into digital identities and has been responsible for launching a number of smart packaging technologies not available until now on the Australian market. | Result Group | Table-grape pilot: technical challenges | ||
2.30pm | Climate impacts – sponsored by the Mallee CMA: Impacts of climate change on production, in particular a recent study for the Mallee CMA and the Victoria Drought Hub, formed in 2021. Facilitator: James Kellerman, MalleeCatchment Management Authority. | Jodie Harrison | Agriculture Victoria (AgVic) | eBook on climate data for the Mallee |
Anna Roberts Dr Anna Roberts Director, Natural Decisions Anna is a Director of Natural Decisions, an Australian-based interdisciplinary consulting company concerned with all aspects of environmental decision-making. Before this she spent over 30 years in the Victorian government in agricultural and environmental research, extension and contributing to policy development. She has led a wide range of projects including evaluating the benefits and costs of addressing various environmental challenges. In 2020 she led novel modelling work estimating the impacts of climate change on yields, water use and other growing season impacts on irrigated horticultural crops (almonds, oranges, table grapes, wine grapes and dried fruit) in the Victorian irrigated Mallee region. Impacts were estimated for 2030, 2050 and 2070 compared with historic climate and the work provides a stronger basis for making decisions around climate change adaptation and management. New work in 2021 is extending the crop modelling to include avocado, olive, pistachio and mandarin. | Natural Decisions | Regional climate impacts study for Mallee CMA | ||
Professor Tim Reeves Professor Tim Reeves Co-Director, Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub; Enterprise Professor in Sustainable Agriculture, the University of Melbourne Tim has worked for over 50 years in agricultural research, development and extension, focussed on sustainable agriculture. He was a pioneer of no-till/conservation agriculture research. His professional career has included roles as: Director General of CIMMYT, based in Mexico; Member of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger; and Senior Expert with FAO, working on sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture. Tim is currently Co-Director of the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub; Professor in Residence at the Dookie Campus of the University of Melbourne and Enterprise Professor in Sustainable Agriculture. In 2016 the University awarded him a Doctor of Agricultural Science honoris causa; and in 2017, the Agronomy Society of Australia awarded him the prestigious Professor C M Donald Medal for lifetime achievement. In 2019 he was presented with the William Farrer Medal for his services to agricultural research, extension and education. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and an Honorary Professor in the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. | Victorian Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub | Innovations in drought impact adaptation | ||
3.30pm | Closing session: Linking the region's challenges and oppportunities to lessons from Growing Smarter in the Mallee 2022. Facilitator: Arron Wood, MC | Angela Avery | Agriculture Victoria | Research Director with leadership of innovation in the horticulture industries |
Jade Benham Jade Benham Mayor, Swan Hill Rural City Council Jade started from a background in broadcasting with Ace Radio Broadcasters, later working in Queensland, Darwin and Melbourne’s Nova 100 in the early 2000s. After expanding her experience in the United States working briefly at Stanford University Jade changed media disiplines to digital when moving to London in 2008. When returning to Australia in 2009, Jade established her own small digital agency and became a voice for small business trying to make a difference in a regional and rural landscape. Elected to Swan Hill Rural City Council unopposed in a 2019 bi-election and then re-elected in 2020, she was also elected Deputy Mayor that same year. Jade is now Swan Hill Rural City Council Mayor and passionate regional Victorian advocate. | Swan Hill Rural City Council | Mayor, speaking for the upstream communities | ||
Tim Jackson | Almond Board of Australia | CEO of the ABA, the largest horticultural sector in the region | ||
Christine Pitt Dr Christine Pitt CEO, Farmers2Founders Christine is a globally recognised thought leader, investor and entrepreneur in the agrifood tech ecosystemand is the founder ofbusinessesin Australia and Asia. She has a particular interest in building globally networked agrifood ecosystems and creating new business models for raising investment funds to support new technologiesand value chain innovations. Previously she was CEO of MLA Donor Company, responsible for a +$75M p.a. global agrifood tech investment portfolio. Christine now spends much of her time working with agrifood tech entrepreneurs, research teams, early stage startups, and more mature ventures looking to rapidly scale and grow. In 2019, Christine established Farmers2Founders,a unique agrifood innovation incubator which focuses on developing the capabilities of producers & agtech developers to accelerate the commercialisation and adoption of new technologies and innovative value adding businesses. Christine is a member of the federal government’s Drought Resilience, Adoption and Innovation Hubs Advisory Committee. | Farmers2Founders | Founder with a passion to translate innovation in farming into highly successful commercial businesses | ||
Rebecca Wells Rebecca Wells CEO, Mallee Regional Innovation Centre Rebecca was appointed by the University of Melbourne as inaugural chief executive of the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre in 2019. The Centre has four key areas of research and development – horticulture, water, energy and the environment. Formerly appointed by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank as a member of the Community Bank National Council, and by the Victorian Government as a member of the Mallee Regional Partnership, she has extensive experience in communications, marketing, governance and community development. Rebecca also has more than 10 years of non-executive director experience, including six years as chair of the Merbein and District Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank and five years as chair of Northern Mallee Leaders Inc. Rebecca’s study and career has taken her to Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and London before returning to Mildura to take up positions with La Trobe University, the Australian Table Grape Association and Mildura Rural City Council. | MRIC | CEO of MRIC and a third generation fruit grower from Merbein driving regional innovation |
Past program events
Growing Smarter in the Mallee 2022 will showcase new agricultural technologies and expertise from a range of industry and scientific experts.
Speakers
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Andy Chambers
Position title:
Managing Director, AirborneLogic Pty LtdAndy Chambers
Andy is an innovator with a particular interest in embracing agri-technology for sustainable food production. He is also a specialist in water management and a sustainability change agent helping organisations to embed sustainability and embrace positive change. As Managing Director at AirborneLogic, Andy is using cutting edge technology to assist land managers to better understand and adopt sustainable land management practices. He is an accomplished rural facilitator and known for implementing projects with practical and cost-effective outcomes.
Trained in developing systems approaches for sustainability, implementing environment management systems (EMS) and the Freshcare environmental code national training the trainer, Andy is always seeking innovative ways to assist the change process. Andy is a member of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) and the Upper Wakefield Landcare Group (SA) and is engaged with a national network of Australia’s leading environmental and sustainable land management, food producer and agricultural and horticultural research professionals.
Session details:
Remote sensing – sponsored by Select Harvests
Thursday 5 May, 1.30pm – 2.15pm
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Dr Anna Roberts
Position title:
Director, Natural DecisionsDr Anna Roberts
Anna is a Director of Natural Decisions, an Australian-based interdisciplinary consulting company concerned with all aspects of environmental decision-making. Before this she spent over 30 years in the Victorian government in agricultural and environmental research, extension and contributing to policy development. She has led a wide range of projects including evaluating the benefits and costs of addressing various environmental challenges.
In 2020 she led novel modelling work estimating the impacts of climate change on yields, water use and other growing season impacts on irrigated horticultural crops (almonds, oranges, table grapes, wine grapes and dried fruit) in the Victorian irrigated Mallee region. Impacts were estimated for 2030, 2050 and 2070 compared with historic climate and the work provides a stronger basis for making decisions around climate change adaptation and management. New work in 2021 is extending the crop modelling to include avocado, olive, pistachio and mandarin.
Session details:
Climate impacts – sponsored by the Mallee CMA
Friday, 2.30pm – 3.15pm
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Anthony Couroupis
Position title:
Managing Director, Lower Murray WaterAnthony Couroupis
Anthony is Sunraysia-born and commenced as Lower Murray Water’s Managing Director in July 2019. Anthony has almost 30 years’ experience in water and natural resources management, primarily associated with irrigation in southern NSW. This experience included both commercial and government roles. Anthony is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia.
Session details:
Irrigation integration – sponsored by Lower Murray Water
Friday 6 May, 11.00am – 11.45am
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Arron Wood
Position title:
Master of Ceremonies (MC), Growing Smarter in the Mallee 2022Arron Wood
Arron is a sustainable business expert and former Deputy Lord Mayor for the City of Melbourne, and is a News Ltd Telstra Micro Business Award winner. At the pulse of what makes Melbourne an incredible city, Arron is Chair of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and currently serves on the South East Water Board, and previously Chaired the Melbourne Ecocity World Summit Advisory Board and was a member of the Fisherman’s Bend Ministerial Advisory Committee.
Arron grew up in Mildura, spending his early years campaigning to save the River Murray. In 2020, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to local government, to the environment, and to the community of Melbourne.
Session details:
Summit MC and opening and closing sessions
Thursday 5 May, 10.00am & 5.30pm
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Ashley Rootsey
Position title:
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Project Manager, Food Agility CRCAshley Rootsey
Ashley manages a series of R&D projects exploring the opportunities for automation and efficiency gains across numerous agricultural sectors. Alongside commercial partners The Yield, Yamaha Motor Co, Bosch and Treasury Wine Estates, his latest project explores the utility of spray robots in wine production, and the operational and farm management benefits that may be unlocked by its rollout.
Ashley has prior experience working across a suite of innovative technology-driven projects in the agriculture and food production sector, and aims to improve the ability of research in this space to be translated into commercialised, scalable outcomes.
Session details:
Robotics & automation
Thursday 5 May, 11.00am – 11.45am
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Brett Millington
Position title:
CEO, Mildura Regional DevelopmentBrett Millington
Born and raised in Mildura, Brett has over 20 years’ experience at an executive level in the economic development and utilities industries. He was an inaugural Board member of Mildura Regional Development (MRD) following its formation in 2017 before being appointed CEO in 2019.
Prior to this, he spent several years as the Program Director for Intelligent Water Networks, the research and collaboration partnership supporting the Victorian Water corporations in their pursuit of innovation. In addition, he currently holds positions on the Victorian Government Regional Partnership for the Mallee, the Strategic Advisory Panel for the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre and the Mallee Hydrogen Technology Cluster.
Educated with a Bachelor of Science with honours from the University of Melbourne initially, Brett also holds post Graduate qualifications in Business Administration from the University of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Session details:
Innovative energy
Thursday 5 May, 4.30pm – 5.15pm
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Cam Clifford
Position title:
Managing Director, AME GroupCam Clifford
Cam has over 20 years of experience in the rural-based capital equipment industry with most of this time focused on spray application technology and development of innovative mechanised equipment for the horticultural industry internally and alongside international partners.
Cam commenced his career in New Zealand as part of the FMR Group before relocating to Australia in 2013 to focus on developing solutions for Australia’s viticulture and horticulture markets. He has a deep connection with the global horticulture industry at multiple levels and has led the company with commitment and passion to enabling Australian growers to improve their crop protection outcomes and increase mechanisation in a market that’s experiencing ever-increasing labour pressures.
Session details:
Robotics & automation
Thursday 5 May, 11.00am – 11.45am
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Dr Christine Pitt
Position title:
Founder and Managing Director, Farmers2FoundersDr Christine Pitt
Christine is a globally recognised thought leader, investor and entrepreneur in the agrifood tech ecosystemand is the founder ofbusinessesin Australia and Asia. She has a particular interest in building globally networked agrifood ecosystems and creating new business models for raising investment funds to support new technologiesand value chain innovations. Previously she was CEO of MLA Donor Company, responsible for a +$75M p.a. global agrifood tech investment portfolio.
Christine now spends much of her time working with agrifood tech entrepreneurs, research teams, early stage startups, and more mature ventures looking to rapidly scale and grow.
In 2019, Christine established Farmers2Founders,a unique agrifood innovation incubator which focuses on developing the capabilities of producers & agtech developers to accelerate the commercialisation and adoption of new technologies and innovative value adding businesses. Christine is a member of the federal government’s Drought Resilience, Adoption and Innovation Hubs Advisory Committee.
Session details:
Farmers 2 Founders workshop
Thursday 5 May, 12.15pm – see workshops page for details
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Damien Heintze
Position title:
Sales and Busines Development Manager – Australia, CropXDamien Heintze
Damien has been involved in the agricultural and natural resource management industries for the past 25 years. Growing up on a dryland cereal farm near Murrayville in Victoria’s mallee, he gained an appreciation of the importance of sustainable agricultural practices, conservation of water and the beauty of living on the land.
Damien has more recently been involved in the water and soil health sectors, managed Australia’s largest water market, waterexchange.com.au and now with CropX Technologies, works with irrigators all over our country to make better, more informed irrigation decisions.
Damien holds a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Management (Flinders University of SA), Diploma in Corporate Governance (AICD) and has been a previous Director of Lower Murray Water Corporation and elected Mildura Rural City Councillor. He now sits on the Board of Directors for Trinity Lutheran College Mildura where his daughter attends.
Session details:
Data driven decisions
Friday 6 May, 10.00am – 10.45am
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Daniel Pelliccia
Position title:
Rubens Technologies Pty LtdDaniel Pelliccia
Daniel is a physicist and entrepreneur. He started his career working in particle accelerator technology, imaging and sensing. Entrepreneur and consultant since 2014, Daniel currently works at the interface between science and industry, to turn exciting research ideas into commercial products.
Some of his clients include the Department of Primary Industries (WA), the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, and Agriculture Victoria (VIC).
Daniel founded Rubens Technologies in early 2018 to develop and market innovative light sensing analytics for the agrifood industry. Rubens Technologies offers a quality system for the fresh fruit supply chain using a combination of spectral sensors and machine learning.
Session details:
Yield estimation
Thursday 5 May, 2.30pm – 3.15pm
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Dannii Roberts
Position title:
Regional & AgTech Coordinator, LaunchVicDannii Roberts
Dannii comes from a background working in local council, with over six years experience as Tourism and Economic Development Officer for Mansfield Shire Council. She has extensive event, project, and stakeholder engagement experience.
Dannii was also a founding member of Startup Shakeup Inc, a LaunchVic-funded regional startup and innovation network with over 500 members in North East Victoria. Dannii continues to live regionally at Bonnie Doon near Mansfield.
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Guy Davidson
Position title:
Head of Growth, OnsideGuy Davidson
Guy is the Head of Growth at Onside and was the fifth employee back in 2019. Guy has helped grow the company from a grassroots start up, predominantly focused on OH&S in the dairy sector, to the company it is today - with over 30 staff and 36,000 users across 4,000 rural businesses in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Guy has worked with customers across all rural sectors - including orchards, vineyards, dairy, poultry and livestock - to help improve their operations, safety and biosecurity through Onside's digital toolkit. He moved to Adelaide from Onside's HQ in Christchurch, New Zealand to ensure the successful expansion into Australia and to give Onside's customers the on-the-ground, personal support they deserve.
Session details:
Yield estimation
Thursday 5 May, 2.30pm – 3.15pm
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Hunter Jay
Position title:
CEO, Ripe RoboticsHunter Jay
Hunter Jay is the co-founder and CEO of Ripe Robotics. Hunter has a varied and technical background, with experience as a software engineer focused on artificial intelligence. Ripe Robotics is a startup working on automation in agriculture, starting with the harvesting of apples, oranges, and stone fruit.
Session details:
Yield estimation
Thursday 5 May, 11.00am – 11.45am
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Jade Benham
Position title:
Mayor, Swan Hill Rural City CouncilJade Benham
Jade started from a background in broadcasting with Ace Radio Broadcasters, later working in Queensland, Darwin and Melbourne’s Nova 100 in the early 2000s. After expanding her experience in the United States working briefly at Stanford University Jade changed media disiplines to digital when moving to London in 2008.
When returning to Australia in 2009, Jade established her own small digital agency and became a voice for small business trying to make a difference in a regional and rural landscape.
Elected to Swan Hill Rural City Council unopposed in a 2019 bi-election and then re-elected in 2020, she was also elected Deputy Mayor that same year. Jade is now Swan Hill Rural City Council Mayor and passionate regional Victorian advocate.
Session details:
Closing Session
Friday 6 May, 3.30pm – 4.00pm
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James Underwood
Position title:
Co-Founder, Green AtlasJames Underwood
James is an expert in perception systems for field robotics - the study of how outdoor robots and seeing machines make sense of their world, using science and technology in multi-modal sensing, data fusion and mapping.
James has applied his research to a number of industry applications around the world including mining, defence and agriculture, with a primary focus on mapping technology for the horticulture industry.
In 2018 James co-founded Green Atlas to commercialise orchard mapping, to provide farms with better data for their decision making and operations.
Session details:
Yield estimation
Thursday 5 May, 2.30pm – 3.15pm
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Jeff Scott
Position title:
CEO, Australian Table Grape Association (ATGA)Jeff Scott
Jeff is a central point of communication for stakeholders, and a conduit between industry and government, and represents the table grape industry on several regional, state and national groups. He has been instrumental in the development and expansion of Australia’s table grape industry on a global stage.
Jeff's representation and advocacy, along with that of the ATGA board and growers, has allowed the industry to gain market access to a range of key global markets, and improve access in previously restricted areas – increasing the value of Australia’s table grape exports from $50M in 2005 to $623M in 2020.
Jeff has been involved in increasing the overall quality and consumer acceptance of Australian table grapes to an all-time high, and enriching innovation and traceability practices within industry to enhance Australia’s reputation of a globally recognised high-quality product.
Session details:
Traceability – sponsored by the State Government
Friday 6 May, 1.30pm – 1.45pm
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Jeremy Giddings
Position title:
Regional Manager Irrigation – Mallee, Agriculture VictoriaJeremy Giddings
Jeremy has been working in irrigation for nearly 25 years in both NSW and Victoria Mallee, helping irrigators improve their irrigation efficiency through improved system performance and adoption of technology such as irrigation scheduling. The current role also involves assisting developers navigate through the New Irrigation Development (NID) process in the Victorian Mallee.
The NID process is required to be followed by developers who must undergo an appropriate level of impact assessment to ensure conditions recommended for inclusion on irrigation related licences are consistent with statutory requirements, plans and considers relevant environmental and cultural values.
Session details:
Climate impacts
Friday 6 May, 2.30pm – 3.15pm
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Joe Kremzer
Position title:
GM Policy, Australian Hydrogen CouncilJoe Kremzer
Joe is a regulatory and policy professional with 20 years experience in the Australian energy sector. He is passionate about engaging with government, industry and community stakeholders to facilitate Australia’s transition to a low emissions energy future. He joined the Australian Hydrogen Council in January 2021 following four years at Hydro Tasmania as Head of Regulatory Affairs for their Momentum Energy retail brand and has held similar roles with other energy retail businesses and within the Tasmanian and Victorian Governments. Joe holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Tasmania and a Graduate Diploma of Journalism from Deakin University.
Session details:
Innovative energy
Thursday 5 May, 4.30pm – 5.15pm
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John O’Connor
Position title:
Energy Research Officer, NSW DPIJohn O’Connor
John currently works with NSW DPI as an Energy Research Officer with the Energy Efficient Solutions project. This role has promoted energy efficiency and explored new low carbon alternatives. He has been involved in agriculture for all his life, after being a “family farm slave”, teacher and African tour guide!
For the past 30 years, John has worked with the NSW Government’s agriculture services across pastures, livestock and research areas and recently joined the International Committee on Irrigation and Drainage working group on the Food/Water/Energy Nexus. He and his wife, Jo, have 5 daughters and run a 350 acre farm near Bega, which they have been making more energy efficient.
Session details:
Innovative energy
Thursday 5 May, 4.30pm – 5.15pm
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Josh Lipscombe
Position title:
Community Programs Manager, LaunchVicJosh Lipscombe
Josh has been embedded in the Victorian startup community for over 8 years. After three years working with Inspire9, Melbourne’s original community-led coworking space nurturing the community, they joined LaunchVic almost five years ago to support the delivery of grant programs, working with program teams to grow the startup sector. They now oversee the Regional and AgTech programs for LaunchVic.
Session details:
LaunchVic workshop
Friday 5 May, 12.30pm – see workshops page for details
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John Pargeter
Position title:
Business Development Manager, SWAN SystemsJohn Pargeter
John has had a long career in agriculture and sustainability, specifically covering water resource management, irrigation infrastructure, on-farm irrigation management and hands on management of horticulture/viticulture projects both in Australia and overseas.
In order to better manage his own 200-hectare wine grape property located at Langhorne Creek, John was an early adopter of relevant technologies and actively sought out agtech solutions that would help him improve the management of his own water resources and on-farm performance. In recent years this search led him to SWAN Systems, who were making big inroads into the irrigation management field. Not long after this he joined the SWAN Systems team, representing the company in South-East Australia.
John is a past Chairman of the Angas Bremer Water Management Committee, Langhorne Creek Wine Industry Council and was a founding director of the Creeks Pipeline Company. He studied Viticulture at Charles Sturt University.
Session details:
Irrigation integration – sponsored by Lower Murray Water
Friday 6 May, 11.00am – 11.45am
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Kieran Murphy
Position title:
Technology Development and Spatial Information Sciences Research Manager, Agriculture Victoria ResearchKieran Murphy
Kieran is currently leading a traceability foundations research program focusing on Horticulture tree crops traceability systems utilising sophisticated spatial technology and new and emerging sensor systems.
Kieran has established research technologies and support systems including demonstration and visualisation services via Agriculture Victoria Research digital twin Virtual SmartFarm platform. He is leading the development of automated channels for information utilising API services with an aim that these will become the emerging standards for industry exchange of information. Kieran facilitated the deployment of the Victorian Governments central API platform to support Agriculture Victoria’s participation in the national soil information systems framework and is developing a framework for data federation that will support existing and new AgTech collaborations and partnerships.
Kieran is currently based in AVR’s AgriBio facility and works at the Tatura SmartFarm supporting AVR’s research and innovation agenda.
Session details:
Traceability – sponsored by the State Government
Friday 6 May, 1.30pm – 1.45pm
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Matthew Pryor
Position title:
Co-founder and Managing Partner, Tenacious VenturesMatthew Pryor
Matthew is co-founder and Managing Partner at Tenacious Ventures. He was previously co-founder of Observant, an Australian agtech pioneer acquired by Jain Irrigation in February 2017. He was the founding chair of Rocket Seeder, a food & ag innovation accelerator, chair of the Australian Government Agriculture 4.0 Task Force, a founding board member of the Australian AgriTech Association, and a current member of the CSIRO Agriculture & Food Advisory Committee. He is passionate about promoting Australian agri-food innovation globally.
Session details:
Future Forces: AgriFutures report
Thursday 5 May, 7.00pm – EvokeAg Summit Dinner presentation at Willow & Ivie
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Matthew Toulmin
Position title:
Research Manager, Mallee Regional Innovation Centre (MRIC)Matthew Toulmin
Matthew Toulmin has been the main organiser of the Summit, working to find the speakers and the sponsors and then arranging the wide range of activities to attract and engage delegates.
He is an enthusiastic economist who has worked for twenty years across regional Victoria helping progress investments that promote sustainable communities. He is particularly proud of his work for the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline, which replaced 17,500 km of open channels with 9,159 kilometres of rural pipeline. The new pipeline saves over 100 ML of water a year and so can now provide a high-quality, reliable water supply to 7,000 rural customers and 36 towns across the Wimmera and Mallee, as well as ensuring vital environmental flows for the rivers and wetlands of the region. Matthew worked with regional communities, farmers and water businesses to help develop the approach and then drafted the business case that won the region $688 million to fund the necessary works.
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Michael Dossor
Position title:
General Manager, Result GroupMichael Dossor
Michael is a well-known packaging industry personality and general manager of Result Group. He is an active industry contributor, participating in education forums and on advisory groups helping to shape the packaging industry’s future.
Michael is passionate about identifying new packaging technologies, processes and materials with the potential to drive innovation whilst also being committed to achieve greater sustainability and food waste control in the packaging space. He also has a keen interest in transforming brands' packaging into digital identities and has been responsible for launching a number of smart packaging technologies not available until now on the Australian market.
Session details:
Traceability – sponsored by the State Government
Friday 6 May, 1.30pm – 1.45pm
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Dr Michael Forster
Position title:
Director, Edaphic Scientific Pty Ltd, MelbourneDr Michael Forster
Michael is the director of Edaphic Scientific and an Adjunct Senior Researcher at Griffith University. Edaphic Scientific is an Australian owned company with a focus on irrigation, soil, weather, and crop water use sensing technology. Edaphic Scientific specializes in technology such as irrigation forecasting, sap flow, crop water use, dendrometers, weather stations, soil water content, tensiometers and more. Dr Forster also undertakes ecophysiological research at Griffith University. The research focus is on crop water use (sap flow), evapotranspiration models, soil water dynamics, and hydrology. The research is also undertaken in collaboration with international partners including University of Florida, Georgia State University, and Technical University of Braunschweig (Germany).
Session details:
Irrigation integration – sponsored by Lower Murray Water
Friday 6 May, 11.00am – 11.45am
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Dr Michael Treeby
Position title:
Senior Research Scientist, Horticulture Production Sciences, Agriculture VictoriaDr Michael Treeby
Michael is based at Agriculture Victoria’s Mildura site and has nearly 40 years’ research experience in perennial horticultural cropping systems in northwest Victoria and southwest NSW.
Session details:
Mildura SmartFarm tour
Friday 6 May, 7.30am – 8.45am
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Associate Professor Mohsen Talei
Position title:
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, the University of MelbourneAssociate Professor Mohsen Talei
Mohsen is an academic in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the degree coordinator of the Master of Energy Systems. Mohsen joined the University of Melbourne as a staff member in 2014, having previously completed post-doctoral research at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and a PhD at the University of Melbourne.
Mohsen has 18 years of industry and academic research experience in the broad area of energy with a focus on low-emission energy technologies and alternative fuels such as hydrogen and biomethane. Mohsen’s research involves a significant use of high-performance computing to develop reliable models for simulating cleaner gas turbines and reciprocating engines.
Session details:
Innovative energy
Thursday 5 May, 4.30pm – 5.15pm
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Nathan Hancock
Position title:
CEO, Citrus AustraliaNathan Hancock
Since his appointment as CEO in late 2017, Nathan has led new initiatives in expanding market access, fruit quality and strengthening biosecurity. He has expanded the business in that time to meet growing international demand for Australian citrus and also to advocate for the needs of Australian growers to government. He was recognised for his leadership and representation of the citrus industry during the citrus canker outbreak in 2018 and subsequent recovery efforts. Nathan first joined Citrus Australia in 2011. Before taking the reins as CEO, he implemented maturity and quality standards in the national industry and improved industry statistics, including the citrus tree census, national plantings database, and production forecast model.
Session details:
Traceability – sponsored by the State Government
Friday 6 May, 1.30pm – 1.45pm
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Dr Nicole Byrnes
Position title:
Project Leader Horticulture Innovation, SuniTAFEDr Nicole Byrnes
Nicole brings to the SuniTAFE SmartFarm team a wealth of expertise in capacity building project across numerous agricultural sectors and more recently in precision agriculture. She holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree (Honours), having commenced her career working on a dried vine fruit research project in Sunraysia. This study excited her in research and she commenced a PhD in plant physiology.
Over the last 20 years, Nicole has been employed in state government and non-for-profit industry organisations in evolving roles leading projects through working with industry and producer groups to increase the adoption of sustainable and innovative farm practices including agtech. Nicole has served board roles with Western LLS, and is the current chair of Mallee Sustainable Farming and is an active member in her district serving in community development and health initiatives.
Session details:
SuniTAFE SMART Farm tours
Thursday 5 and Friday 6 May, 12.30pm – see workshops page for details
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Professor Pablo Zarco-Tejada
Position title:
Associate Dean Graduate Research, FVAS School of Agriculture and Food, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences (FVAS), and Department of Infrastructure Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT) University of MelbourneProfessor Pablo Zarco-Tejada
Pablo is Professor in Remote Sensing and Precision Agriculture at the University of Melbourne. He leads HyperSensLab focused on remote sensing for crop stress detection using hyperspectral and thermal images acquired by manned and unmanned aircraft.
He received the degree in Agricultural Engineering from Spain, M.Sc. degree in Remote Sensing from the U.K., and a Ph.D. in Earth and Space Science from Canada. He has been a faculty member at the University of California, Davis, USA, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (CSIC, Spain), and Senior Scientist at the European Commission.
Highly Cited Researcher in 2019 & 2020, he is the author of more than 150 papers published in international journals. He is Associate Editor of Remote Sensing of Environment and European Journal of Agronomy journals, and has received awards in Spain, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
Session details:
Remote sensing – sponsored by Select Harvests
Thursday 5 May, 1.30pm – 2.15pm
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Paul Grobler
Position title:
Sales & Client Services Manager, Phytech AustraliaPaul Grobler
Paul Grobler is the National Sales and Customer Services Manager at Phytech based out of Mildura, VIC. His primary role is to ensure that growers get maximum benefit from the Phytech Service through optimising irrigation decisions based on their plant-based data.
Paul grew up on their family farm in Zimbabwe, Africa. He holds a Civil Engineering qualification from the University of Technology in Pretoria, South Africa. Paul has spent most of his career consulting, designing & automating irrigation systems. Paul immigrated to Australia almost 6 years ago as Project Sales Manager for Irribiz in Robinvale and joined Phytech in October 2018. For Paul, Phytech has brough together his love for farming and passion for irrigation into one unique, simple to use platform which continues to impact the horticulture industry.
Session details:
Irrigation integration – sponsored by Lower Murray Water
Friday 6 May, 11.00am – 11.45am
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Peter O'Donnell
Position title:
Executive Director, SC FarmsPeter O'Donnell
Peter completed an economics degree in Adelaide, graduating in 1992. In 2001, he founded Southern Cross Business Advisers (SCBA), which grew into a four-partner organisation with a team of 30 professionals. Southern Cross Farms (SC Farms) was created in 2006 as part of the wider SCBA group. In 2013, Peter purchased SC Farms outright.
SC Farms (SCF) is a farm management company that provides operational, financial and organisational support for investors in irrigated horticulture. SCF manage farming operations in Victoria, SA, NSW, NT and Queensland. Experience is across many crops with strongest focus on citrus, almonds, grapes and avocadoes.
As Executive Director of the SC Farms group, his responsibility lies with strategy development, investor liaison and acquisitions.
Peter is also involved in many community organisations. This includes Chair of Mildura Airports Pty Ltd, Director of NMLLEN, Chair of Mallee Regional Trade Training Centre, Finance Committee member of the Mildura Specialist School and Committee member of Imperial FNC.
Session details:
Data Driven Decisions
Friday 6 May, 10.00am – 10.45am
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Rebecca Wells
Position title:
Chief Executive Officer, Mallee Regional Innovation Centre (MRIC)Rebecca Wells
Rebecca was appointed by the University of Melbourne as inaugural chief executive of the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre in 2019. The Centre has four key areas of research and development – horticulture, water, energy and the environment.
Formerly appointed by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank as a member of the Community Bank National Council, and by the Victorian Government as a member of the Mallee Regional Partnership, she has extensive experience in communications, marketing, governance and community development.
Rebecca also has more than 10 years of non-executive director experience, including six years as chair of the Merbein and District Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank and five years as chair of Northern Mallee Leaders Inc.
Rebecca’s study and career has taken her to Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and London before returning to Mildura to take up positions with La Trobe University, the Australian Table Grape Association and Mildura Rural City Council.
Session details:
Closing Session
Friday 6 May, 3.30pm – 4.00pm
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Dr Robert Ross
Position title:
Senior Lecturer, Director of RAMPS Research Lab; Head, Electronics and Robotics Engineering, Department of Engineering, La Trobe UniversityRobert Ross
Robert's research is related to robotics, sensors and mechatronics. His PhD involved autonomous imaging of car undercarriages using a catadioptric imaging system mounted on a mobile robot platform. He has also been researching in novel optical flow algorithms used in robot localisation along with mobile robot drain inspection techniques, agricultural robotic applications and applications of machine vision. Additionally Robert has been involved in the development of low-power embedded systems and sensory packages used for environmental and application specific monitoring.
Robert's R&D heavily tends towards creating functional prototypes and is keen to employ his considerable background in embedded systems and robotics to actually make things work - rather than just modelling them. Robert is also the director of the RAMPS R&D group which is a research group aiming to solve real world problems related to Robotics, Automation, Mechatronics and Sensing by creating functional Prototypes.
Session details:
Robotics & automation
Thursday 5 May, 11.00am – 11.45am
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Roei Yaakobi
Position title:
CEO, Tie Up FarmingRoei Yaakobi
Roei grew up on a farm in Israel and has extensive experience in the agricultural industry. Over the last decade, he has delivered disruptive projects across the horticulture sector. His passion is the agricultural technology sector and working with farmers.
Session details:
Robotics & automation
Thursday 5 May, 11.00am – 11.45am
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Scott Gillet
Position title:
Customer Success Advisor, Ceres ImagingScott Gillet
Scott has been part of Ceres Imaging since 2018, where he works with Australian customers to ensure that the imagery and data they receive contributes to improving their production and sustainability.
Prior to Ceres, Scott worked in a range of roles in natural resources management and agriculture, including running his own mapping business and providing land management advice to farmers working to ameliorate salinity and land degradation issues. Trying to ensure that remote sensing insights are accessible and understandable to growers is something that's always interesting and rewarding.
Session details:
Remote sensing – sponsored by Select Harvests
Thursday 5 May, 1.30pm – 2.15pm
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Tim Cummins
Position title:
Principal Consultant, Tim Cummins & AssociatesTim Cummins
Tim Cummins has worked with rural communities for thirty-seven years. During that time, he has helped community groups develop natural resource management plans and to develop business cases for government funding. He has conducted surveys, facilitated focus group discussions in regional towns, sat around kitchen tables on many farms in many states, illustrated difficult concepts on butchers’ paper in remote communities and turned hostile public meetings into constructive exchanges between government and the community.
Tim has also helped to develop, implement and evaluate Government policies. He was written many booklets to articulate government policy in plain English.
Session details:
Drought Hub workshop
Thursday 5 May, 12.10pm – see workshops page for details
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Professor Tim Reeves
Position title:
Co-Director, Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub; Enterprise Professor in Sustainable Agriculture, the University of MelbourneProfessor Tim Reeves
Tim has worked for over 50 years in agricultural research, development and extension, focussed on sustainable agriculture. He was a pioneer of no-till/conservation agriculture research. His professional career has included roles as: Director General of CIMMYT, based in Mexico; Member of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger; and Senior Expert with FAO, working on sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture.
Tim is currently Co-Director of the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub; Professor in Residence at the Dookie Campus of the University of Melbourne and Enterprise Professor in Sustainable Agriculture. In 2016 the University awarded him a Doctor of Agricultural Science honoris causa; and in 2017, the Agronomy Society of Australia awarded him the prestigious Professor C M Donald Medal for lifetime achievement. In 2019 he was presented with the William Farrer Medal for his services to agricultural research, extension and education. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and an Honorary Professor in the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Session details:
Climate impacts – sponsored by the Mallee CMA
Friday, 2.30pm – 3.15pm
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Tristan Steventon
Position title:
Director, StevTechTristan Steventon
Tristan grew up on a mixed farming enterprise in Central West NSW. Prior to returning to agriculture, he spent 20 years in the Australian Army during which time he worked with cutting edge drones and sensors.
Since returning to Central West NSW in 2016 he foundered StevTech, an agri-tech company at the forefront of agricultural innovation that uses drones, artificial intelligence, and all sources of agricultural data to improve the productivity of Australian farms. We are drone and data specialists.
StevTech is a graduate of the DPI Global Ag-Tech Ecosystem (GATE) business accelerator program and works in broad acre, horticulture and viticulture. StevTech strives to make world-class high-tech solutions accessible and simple. We scan the globe for high tech solutions to real world farming problems. If a solution doesn’t exist, we develop one.
Session details:
Yield estimation
Thursday 5 May, 11.00am – 11.45am
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Zelmari Coetzee
Position title:
Senior Research Scientist, Agriculture VictoriaZelmari Coetzee
Zelmari is a Mildura-based Senior Research Scientist with Agriculture Victoria. She has extensive research experience in the physiology of grape vines and almonds both in Australia and in her native South Africa. She gained her PhD within the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production.
Since joining AV Zelmari has been part of a larger research program on almond productivity and on developing future almond production systems. The Mildura SmartFarm is the platform Zelmari is using to investigating the design and performance of more intensive production systems and assessing new technologies to assist in orchard management.
In this role she has developed the use of LiDAR to visualise almond tree architecture and simulate the impact of pruning strategies. She has also investigated the drawing down of soil water to develop benchmark “on” and “off” points for sensor outputs in relation to autonomous irrigation management.
In addition to her knowledge of plant physiology and grapevine and almond agronomy, she has also gained experience in climatology, geographical information systems and remote sensing.
Session details:
Mildura SmartFarm tour
Friday 6 May, 7.30am – 8.45am