FCC Precision Ag Task Force Hears Updates From Working Group Leadership

Vice Chair Michael Adelaine, South Dakota State University vice president-technology and security, raised concerns about awareness of the broadband availability and funding maps. Adelaine asked what the FCC is doing "to get the word out." It's "a challenge to reach stakeholders on a large scale," Broadband Data Task Force Senior Counsel Kirk Burgee told the task force, and the agency has "put a lot of effort into that."

The FCC should add information relevant to precision agriculture to the broadband data map to enhance its usability for stakeholders, mapping working group Chair Sreekala Bajwa, Montana State University College of Agriculture and Montana Agricultural Experiment Station's vice president-dean and director, told the task force. The WG also recommended including a verification data layer to show where "the existence and performance of connectivity has been independently verified."

The task force heard from local broadband officials about the state of their broadband needs. "We feel we have a really good model here," said Georgia State Broadband Office Deputy Chief Information Officer Jessica Simmons, saying the state "really tried to take advantage of the resources that we have within different agencies." In Minnesota, the state's Office of Broadband Development created digital connection communities to gather and assess information at the local level while the state develops its broadband strategy, said Executive Director Bree Maki. The "technology of choice" in the state "has been and continues to be" fiber, Maki said, noting her office is engaging with communities to understand their needs.

The group also heard from USDA on various climate-smart agricultural initiatives. The agency's climate-smart commodities projects are being implemented and "I'm sure we'll be hearing about connectivity challenges" throughout the duration of each project, said Senior Adviser-Climate and Conservation Bidisha Bhattacharyya, saying data collected may be shared with the task force.

The accelerating broadband deployment WG will update its definition of broadband and standards for funding decisions on a biannual basis. The WG made a total of 14 recommendations based on funding requirements, private network development, and spectrum efficiency and network deployment, said WG Chair Jennifer Manner, Hughes Network Systems senior vice president-regulatory affairs.

"Cellular wireless networks play a critical role in enabling last acre coverage," said Heather Hampton+Knodle, Knodle Farms vice president-secretary and connectivity demand WG chair. "We need to remedy current shortfalls in rural America," she said. The group recommended there be an effort to "incentivize and obligate providers to make service available to all customers in their territory" that's "consistent with the standard of service that cooperatives must meet." It also recommended improvements to the Rural Utilities Services' grants and loans for tower construction with weighted scoring on ReConnect where the benefits of using precision agriculture is shown.

The encouraging high-quality jobs WG chair, Paige Wireless President Julie Bushell, said the group updated several of its draft recommendations to clarify collaboration with land grant universities and technical colleges from a precision agriculture standpoint. The WG plans to establish a "road map to precision ag adoption and rural economic success" in its final report to the full task force in September. It will also include metrics the FCC could use to measure and track progress toward precision agriculture adoption and deployment, Bushell said.