Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** i-farm (illinois - farming and…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** i-farm (illinois - farming and regenerative management) testbed will accelerate creation, maturation, and adoption of new management technologies that are fundamentally moresustainable, profitable, affordable, and scale-neutral. I-farm will provide comprehensive managementpractices for a farm-of-the-future and demonstrate their application on an 80 acretestbed. In the first three years, technologies matured will leverage existing strengths of our team, including improved precision farming with remote-sensing; new under-canopy autonomous roboticsolutions for cover-crop planting, variable-rate input applications, and mechanical weeding; remotesensing technologies for animal health prediction; enabled by multimodal networking solutions forrural broadband connectivity and edge AI. The myfarm APP will provide farmers with anintegrated dashboard that can be customized to the needs of their farm. Our focus on scale-neutraltechnologies can provide a solution to the worsening labor crisis for small farms and improve thesustainability of large and spatially heterogeneous farms. Technoeconomic simulations and farmersurveys will clarify barriers and incentives to adoption of sustainable technology to industry andfarmers. Integrated extension activities will be conducted in a research space that is open tofarmers, where farmers will be provided demonstrations and training, easing the adoption of newtechnologies and opening new markets for farmers. I-farm team will engage with industry tohelp themcreate new data-driven products and services for farmers. An industry advisory board and a farmer advisory board will help optimize impact on farming practices. Together, thisintegrated suite of solutions will lead to sustainable ways of meeting growing demand foragricultural produce.