The Smart Integrated Farm Network for Rural Agricultural Communities (SIRAC) project recently received a three-year, nearly $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop technology that will allow farmers to pool data and share knowledge to guide responses to production obstacles such as weeds, disease and pests. The effort will start out as a small pilot project that includes ten farmers, and gradually expand to hundreds of farmers. The multidisciplinary research team is led by PI Asheesh Singh and co-PIs Soumik Sarkar (associate professor of mechanical engineering) and Gil Depaula (assistant professor of economics).

This interdisciplinary team will use unmanned aerial vehicles and other cutting-edge technology to gather data on various aspects of the farmers's operations, such as diseases, weather conditions, pests and weeds. Machine-learning algorithms will evaluate and sort the data and make relevant information available to other farmers participating in the project, while prioritizing privacy to make sure no data are made available to the community that individual farmers aren’t comfortable with. Farmers can use the data to inform decisions on their own operations.

For additional information about the grant please visit the ISU News Release.