Technology changing the way state’s agriculture sector does business, Delta panel says

Several farming experts from across the state said Thursday (April 7) during a panel discussion in Pine Bluff that the Arkansas Delta has a unique chance to capture opportunities in the global marketplace as technology changes the landscape of the agriculture industry.

The forum, moderated by Ritter Arnold, a fourth-generation Arkansas farmer, was just one of several panel discussions held at a one-day conference at the Pine Bluff Convention Center titled “The Arkansas Delta: Why It Still Matters.”

The event, sponsored by Arkansas banking giant Simmons Bank, also held other panel discussions on education, agriculture, race relations and health care that brought in some of the state’s top government and business officials, including Arkansas Economic Development Director Mike Preston and Randy Zook, president of CEO of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, and Delta Regional Authority co-chair Chris Masingill.

In the morning session, Preston gave the opening address that was followed by a panel discussion on healthcare in the Delta region. Later, Arkansas Baptist College President Fitz Hill moderated a group discussion on educational issues in the eastern and southern parts of the state.

Following a luncheon where University of Arkansas at Little Rock History Professor Dr. John Kirk gave a keynote address on the historical aspects of race and ethnicity in the Arkansas Delta, the farming experts offered their views on the technological developments that are changing Arkansas’ $20 billion agricultural economy.

Freddie Black, a southern Arkansas farmer and regional chairman of Simmons Bank, recently had a discussion with his son about how the mechanization of farm equipment has evolved in the past decade, offering the example of a $600,000 cotton-picking combine that is operated by computers and GPS.

“It has really impacted the way we farm, we are covering a lot more acres and there is a lot more capital involved in owning that kind of equipment, but that has changed the way we do business,” Black said. “You can’t farm 6,000 or 7,000 acres with yesterday’s equipment. And hand-and-hand with that is the technology to operate that equipment, which changes completely the kind of person you put on the tractor, combine, sprayer or fertilizer.”

Andrew Grobmyer, executive vice president of the Agricultural Council Arkansas, said he has also seen a fair amount of change in the industry, but most have taken place in this century and center around technology.

“I think it is happening faster, and faster, and faster as these changes come and it is happening all around the world, including the United States and the Delta at large,” he said of the recent advances in such areas as equipment, irrigation and conservation. “(Our) survivability in agriculture, economically and otherwise, is going to depend on the availability of technology.”

Grobmyer continued: “We are seeing technology drive everything and we are experiencing quite an evolution. And what I see going forward is a lot more – as we see satellite technology, wireless, broadband, the ‘cloud’ and Internet of Things come about – and it is quite amazing and to be able to communicate all that through social media and things like that. It is all happening at a velocity that is hard to imagine and wrap your head around.”

Cynthia Edwards, deputy secretary of the state Department of Agriculture, said the state’s farming industry, like the rest of the Delta, is being affected by the region’s declining population. However, she said, innovation and technology is attracting younger professionals to the sector who would otherwise seek careers out-of-state and in other industries.

“It does bring younger people to the industry and that is something we desperately need,” Edwards said. “The average age of (Arkansas) farmers is 58, and people are not going to farm at that age very much longer if they don’t have to.”

After the farming experts completed their 45-minute dialog, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Vice Chancellor Carla Martin moderated the last panel that took up economic development in the Arkansas Delta.

That panel, which included Zook and Lou Ann Nesbitt, president and CEO of the Jefferson County Economic Development Alliance, talked about ways that state leaders can work with economic developers in the region to shore up the area’s declining population base by bringing more jobs to Pine Bluff and other Delta communities.

“The (Delta) is an economic powerhouse,” Zook said of the region’s agriculture roots. “We just need to simply figure out ways to continue to sustain the innovation within that sector of our economy to find new markets, new products, new applications, new methods and new ways to put to work the incredibly valuable resources we have. This (area) is part of the ‘Grain Basket’ of North America.”

Other members of the economic development panel were Joe Bailey of Entergy Arkansas, board president of the Arkansas Economic Developers; Dr. Mary Benjamin, vice chancellor for research, innovation and economic development at UAPB; and J.D. Lowery, manager of community and economic development for the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp.