I-FARM: ILLINOIS FARMING AND REGENERATIVE MANAGEMENT TESTBED

<b>Project Methods</b><br> The methodology in this project relies on first establishing the farm of the future on eighty acres of land on the University of Illinois South Farm with corn-soybean rotations in a production setting. The area will be split into two trials, a control field that follows conventional technologies from the agronomy handbook, and a field where the integrated suite of digital technologies described below will be applied. The economic (profitability), productivity (yield vs inputs utilized), and environmental (soil and water) outcomes will be intensively measured and compared across the two trials.The I-FARM testbed leadership team will identify and mature technologies ready for adoption from our team's spectrum of technologies. In the first three years, the below technologies are identified for maturation, and the proposed work is divided into sixthrusts: (Thrus t#1) Develop AI enabled remote sensing technologies for precision farming; (Thrust #2) Develop scale-neutral under-canopy robotic technology for under-canopy cover-crop planting, weeding, spot re-seeding, and variable rate spraying; (Thrust #3) Develop Edge computing and connectivity technologies to make AI-enabled decision support accessible to farmers in rural regions, and integrate outputs from multiple data sources to create the MyFarm app;(Thrust #4) Develop AI-enabled remote health assessment technologies for precision animal management on the farm or in the barn; (Thrust #5) Develop scale-neutral robotic technology for smallholder and minority vegetable and small animal farmers in Alabama in collaboration with Tuskegee (HBCU) university; and(Thrus t#6) Assess the socioeconomic barriers to and incentives for adoption of digital technologies by farmers.The I-FARM project will integrate the following Extension activities: (Activity #1) Host farmers at I-FARM to demonstrate integrated technologies and meet with I-FARM researchers and engineers; (Activity #2) Visit farmers at their farms to demonstrate technologies at their fields and discuss their technological needs; (Activity #3) Create a central training hub called I-FARM University for farmer training, in-depth review, and safety implications of the I-FARM technology. These training programs will be conducted through: a) Virtual Reality based training; b) Live and webinar on-demand training; c) Demonstrations; and d) Factsheets, partial budgets, and reports; and (Activity #4) Conduct outreach efforts including participating in farm trade shows, regional conferences, podcasts and other outreach activities.A key effort also is to engage industry and farm operator stakeholders in the above activities. The purpose is to seek their inputto advance the maturation of technologies.