FCC chairman Ajit Pai has named the members of the FCC's Precision Agriculture Task Force and announced the first meeting will be Monday, Dec. 9.

The FCC was directed by Congress in the 2018 Farm Bill to create the task force "to explore ways to enhance the productivity and efficiency of the nation’s farms and ranches through broadband-based technologies," which has the official title of "Task Force for Reviewing the Connectivity and Technology Needs of Precision Agriculture."

Pai just this week announced that he is proposing a $1 billion fund (part of a $9 billion 5G fund) to support rural broadband deployment for precision agriculture.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who backed the Farm Bill provision creating the task force, released a statement in advance of the first meeting.

“Too often, farmers and ranchers are unable to benefit from precision agriculture technologies—which help farmers streamline their operations, boost their bottom lines, and improve crop yields—due to limited broadband access," said Klobuchar. "After years of legislative effort, the Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force, which was established in June, will finally come together to continue the work of closing the digital divide, including on our farms and ranchlands. I look forward to seeing the recommendations of the Task Force, led by Minnesota’s own Teddy Bekele, to promote broadband deployment and precision agriculture technology for our rural communities.”

The members are:

Chair: Michael Adelaine, Ph.D., vice president for technology and security, South Dakota State University   

Vice Chair: Sreekala Bajwa, Ph.D., vice president, dean & director; college of agriculture & Montana agricultural experiment station, Montana State University

The working group for Examining Current and Future Connectivity Demand for Precision Agriculture will help identify the current and future connectivity needs for precision agriculture applications and identify how those needs may vary for different agricultural producers.

Chair: Daniel T. Leibfried, director advanced technology, Intelligent Solutions Group, John Deere   

Vice Chair: Blake Hurst, president, Missouri Farm Bureau

The Encouraging Adoption of Precision Agriculture and Availability of High-Quality Jobs on Connected Farms working group will explore how to promote adoption of precision agriculture technologies and how such technologies will affect demand for skilled labor in the farming and ranching sectors. 

Chair: Mike McCormick, president, Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation   

Vice Chair: Julie Bushell, president, Paige Wireless, Irrigation Association

The Accelerating Broadband Deployment on Unserved Agricultural Lands working group will help identify barriers to infrastructure deployment on agricultural lands and how to promote continued investment in networks serving those areas.

Chair: Jeff Pettit, president and CEO, Noash Construction, Inc., National Association of Tower Erectors  

Vice Chair: Heather Hampton Knodle, vice president, Knodle Ltd. Farms, American Agri-Women

The Senate has passed a Farm Bill whose broadband section reins in potential overbuilding of commercial broadband operators with government broadband subsidies.

The bill, which passed overwhelmingly (86 to 11), "establishes new broadband standards for projects financed through USDA. That translates to reforms to the USDA's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) broadband funding program to better target the funds to unserved areas where there is no high-speed broadband, rather than to underserved areas where the money could be used to overbuild existing commercial providers.

ISPs have long argued that government broadband funds should go to build out broadband, not overbuild it, and pushed the agriculture committees to square the RUS funds with that philosophy. Fans of the program argued that some overbuilding was necessary to make the more expensive unserved buildout portions sustainable.

"This legislation has important reforms to the USDA Rural Utility Service’s broadband programs so federal funding will focus more appropriately on bringing connectivity to unserved areas, rather than overbuilding existing networks," said NCTA-The Internet Television Association. "In addition, the legislation also directs the RUS to confer with the FCC and NTIA and includes transparency and notice processes, all of which will help provide the USDA with the latest information about broadband availability and guard against waste, fraud and abuse. We encourage the House and Senate to come together and produce a combined Farm Bill that includes these important reforms.”

The Senate Farm Bill must still be reconciled with a House-passed version, which won't happen until after the July 4 break.