The FCC says that it intends to re-charter the Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force, which aims to examine how connectivity can be useful in meeting the production and sustainability challenges faced by agricultural and food systems.
This will be the third and final term for the task force, which was established under the 2018 Farm Bill. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel called upon underrepresented communities – including socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers – to participate on the task force and its four working groups.
“Today’s farmers and ranchers rely on high-speed internet to make the best use of connected tools to efficiently run their businesses and meet the demand for food to sustain our communities,” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a press release.
“I am calling on the Task Force to look closely at the link between connectivity and agricultural sustainability, to see how best to leverage innovation to improve food production for the future. We thank our federal partners at USDA for their commitment to this work and look forward to a productive next term.”
FCC Precision Ag Task Force
The task force works in consultation with USDA. Its four working groups focus on mapping and analyzing connectivity on agricultural lands; examining current and future connectivity demands for precision agriculture; encouraging adoption of precision agriculture and availability of high-quality jobs on connected farms and accelerating broadband deployment on unserved agricultural lands.
In late 2021, the FCC precision ag task force recommended that buildout requirements such as those made in connection with spectrum auctions be based on geographically covered areas that comprise croplands or ranch lands rather than population; increasing incentives for deployment; increasing fixed and mobile broadband speed definitions to 100 Mbps downloads and 20 Mbps uploads; expanding middle mile infrastructure and clarifying that edge compute and private 5G wireless systems are eligible for federal broadband programs
