MSU Officially Opens Nation’s First Agricultural Autonomy Institute

Nov 28, 2023

The farm of the future is being created at Mississippi State University.

MSU officials on Thursday [Oct. 26] officially opened the Agricultural Autonomy Institute, the nation’s first and only interdisciplinary research center focused on autonomous technologies to enhance on-farm precision and efficiency.

The Agricultural Autonomy Institute builds on and expands MSU’s longstanding precision agriculture efforts and history of innovation in the field. The institute serves as a hub for researchers across campus interested in technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence and remote sensing that have potential to increase agricultural precision, production and profitability.

Alex Thomasson, Agricultural Autonomy Institute director and head of MSU’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, said autonomous technologies can reduce the impact of labor shortages by making farm workers more efficient with the aid of novel systems.

“Autonomous systems multiply the productivity of a single farm worker such that they can oversee multiple machines and operations simultaneously,” Thomasson said. “Overall, the goal of the institute is economic development. We want to attract agricultural equipment companies, and we want to conduct research that leads to technology-based startup companies. We want to develop a new workforce that will have the ability to work in this new world of robotics, mechatronics and computer coding. I really hope to see Mississippi become the Silicon Valley of agricultural autonomy.”

The research infrastructure for the institute includes a 4,800-square-foot laboratory space in the Pace Seed Technology Laboratory and a five-acre “Autonomous Acres” proving ground at MSU’s R.R. Foil Plant Science Research Center. The institute is jointly managed by the university’s Office of Research and Economic Development and the Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine, with support from the Bagley College of Engineering, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and other MSU institutes, research centers and departments.

Julie Jordan, MSU vice president for research and economic development, noted the collaborative and interdisciplinary culture of research at MSU, with existing research focus areas and faculty efforts that are poised to accelerate the new institute’s impact.

“Our centers and institutes are structured to bring people and disciplines together to solve problems,” Jordan said. “That’s where the magic is made and that’s where we can really accelerate the work that’s happening in the classrooms, in the laboratories and at the fundamental research level and get it out into the world to solve problems.”

For decades, National Science Foundation rankings have placed MSU among the top universities nationally for agricultural research and development expenditures. In the most recent rankings, MSU is No. 11. Keith Coble, vice president for the Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine, said MSU’s ag research has consistently evolved and modernized to stay at the forefront of innovation.

“At MSU, we’re building a new supercomputing center on the bluff overlooking North Farm, and I think that’s kind of emblematic of where we are today,” Coble said. “Agriculture, in its most basic form, is the same that it’s always been. But yet we are in a world where we have to change and adapt. Competitors have made it their agenda to catch the U.S. and surpass us in industrial policy in agriculture. I think this institute is part of what we have to do to maintain our leadership not only nationally, but internationally as well.”

Source : msstate.edu

Video: Moving Ag Research Forward Through Collaboration

BY: Ashley Robinson

It may seem that public and private researchers have different goals when it comes to agricultural research. However, their different strategies can work in tandem to drive agricultural research forward. Public research may focus more on high-risk and applied research with federal or outside funding, while private sector researchers focus more on research application.

“For me, the sweet spot for public private sector research is when we identify problems and collaborate and can use that diverse perspective to address the different aspects of the challenge. Public sector researchers can work on basic science high risk solutions as tools and technologies are developed. They then can work with their private sector partners who prototype solutions,” Mitch Tuinstra, professor of plant breeding and genetics in Purdue University’s Department of Agronomy, said during the Jan. 10 episode of Seed Speaks.

Public researchers they have the flexibility to be more curiosity driven in their work and do discovery research. This is complimentary to private research, which focuses on delivering a product, explained Jed Christianson, canola product design lead for Bayer CropScience, explained during the episode.

“As a seed developer, we worry about things like new crop diseases emerging. Having strong public sector research where people can look into how a disease lifecycle cycle works, how widespread is it and what damage it causes really helps inform our product development strategies,” he added.

It’s not always easy though to develop these partnerships. For Christianson, it’s simple to call up a colleague at Bayer and start working on a research project. Working with someone outside of his company requires approvals from more people and potential contracts.

“Partnerships take time, and you always need to be careful when you're establishing those contracts. For discoveries made within the agreement, there need to be clear mechanisms for sharing credits and guidelines for anything brought into the research to be used in ways that both parties are comfortable with,” Christianson said.

Kamil Witek, group leader of 2Blades, a non-profit that works with public and private ag researchers, pointed out there can be limitations and challenges to these partnerships. While private researchers are driven by being able to make profits and stay ahead of competitors, public researchers may be focused on information sharing and making it accessible to all.

“The way we deal with this, we work in this unique dual market model. Where on one hand we work with business collaborators, with companies to deliver value to perform projects for them. And at the same time, we return the rights to our discoveries to the IP to use for the public good in developing countries,” Witek said during the episode.

At the end of the day, the focus for all researchers is to drive agricultural research forward through combining the knowledge, skills and specializations of the whole innovation chain, Witek added.

“If there's a win in it for me, and there's a win in it for my private sector colleagues in my case, because I'm on the public side, it’s very likely to succeed, because there's something in it for all of us and everyone's motivated to move forward,” Tuinstra said.