FCC Precision Ag Task Force OKs WG Recommendations

The FCC Precision Ag Task Force unanimously adopted its working groups’ reports and recommendations Friday at a virtual meeting that also heard updates from the Broadband Data Task Force on how agricultural lands are accounted for in the broadband serviceable location fabric.

The accelerating broadband deployment on unserved agricultural lands WG was responsible for reviewing the task force’s 2019 recommendations and “considering new technology innovations, funding, and other changes,” said WG Chair Jennifer Manner, noting the WG developed 12 recommendations. Addressing deployment needs in a “technology neutral manner” while “understanding the benefits of certain technologies is hard to capture” and it’s “a big part of where we will spend the rest of our term,” Manner said.

The data mapping working group offered four recommendations in its report, said WG Chair Sreekala Bajwa, Montana State University College of Agriculture and Montana Agricultural Experiment Station vice president-dean and director. Bajwa said the FCC should “adopt a standardized minimum set of required measurements” for the broadband data collection, partner with USDA on a framework for a pilot program to share mapping data with agricultural communities, and incorporate “precision agriculture connectivity profiles” to “enable current and future precision agriculture adoption.” The WG also recommended reporting data based on 40-acre resolutions and that USDA establish an “interagency coordinating council focused on broadband connectivity data collection” and analysis.

“There is a significant gap right now between what we are able to do and where everyone says we are headed,” said examining current and future connectivity demand working group Chair Heather Hampton-Knodle, Knodle Farms vice president-secretary. Among the WG’s recommendations were targeting existing infrastructure investments to “enable gains from precision ag.” The group included language encouraging the FCC to accelerate 5G, 6G and spectrum access. “The economics of edge compute is something I think warrants more investigation to learn about scalability across many sizes and types of farms," Hampton-Knodle said. The WG plans to meet biweekly starting in January, she added.

The encouraging adoption and availability of high-quality jobs WG focused its recommendations on “increased on-farm connectivity, climate-smart agriculture and sustainable productivity, improved collaboration, research and innovation, assuring long-term continuity of U.S. agricultural systems, solidifying cybersecurity and data privacy requirements, and ensuring multiscale adaptability,” said the group's chair, Paige Wireless President Julie Bushell.

“We feel education and support of digital tools and data is much needed,” Bushell said. The WG recommended USDA increase its operating loans "as a means to allow for ag tech adoption to mitigate operational risk and prepare for climate adaptability tools." Bushell said the WG is drafting a "set of security standards" for its next draft report.

Agricultural areas in the broadband serviceable location fabric are based on how the areas are parceled for fixed services, Sean Spivey, chief of staff and senior legal counsel to the Broadband Data Task Force, told the group. The “general rule is that we try and identify one broadband-serviceable location per parcel,” Spivey said. Broadband Data Task Force Senior Counsel Kirk Burgee noted the commission doesn’t have “any current plans” to add additional nonbroadband-related layers, “but other agencies and stakeholders may seek to do that.”