May 3, 2018
Sen. Young, FCC Commissioner Carr visit Purdue’s Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center
Jason Adams, phenotyping facility manager, explains the process of the machinery inside Purdue's Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center. The blue machine is a corn sheller, removing the corn kernels from the husks. (Purdue Ag Communication photo/Tom Campbell)
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U.S. Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr toured the Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center at Purdue’s Agronomy Center for Research and Education on Wednesday (May 2).
The tour included a demonstration of threshing and shelling technologies and a look at the facility’s PhenoRover, a vehicle that uses remote sensing to collect data in the field. Young and Carr also viewed Purdue’s fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles, which collect crop data from the air.
The guests heard from Purdue faculty and staff members about the importance of reliable, high-speed internet access in rural areas to allow farmers to take advantage of the new technologies.
"At the federal level we have some work to do to make sure every farmer here in Indiana has access to high-speed broadband," Young said. "We're all interconnected here and it's essential that we invest in this technology to benefit the whole country."
Karen Plaut, interim dean of the College of Agriculture, emphasized the importance of new digital agriculture technologies in developing more efficient and sustainable agricultural practices.
Karen Plaut, Purdue’s interim dean of agriculture, explains to Sen. Todd Young how the seed sorter can rapidly sort and separate different varieties of corn. In this case, dividing individual kernels of yellow and orange corn. (Purdue Ag Communication photo/Tom Campbell)
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Young expressed interest in pursuing initiatives to improve internet access in rural areas. Boosting rural internet connectivity, he added, has the potential to enhance agricultural operations and improve access to medical and educational opportunities for all Hoosiers.
"There is pretty broad agreement across party lines that these investments need to occur and that the entire country will benefit,” Young said.
The Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center, a 25,500-square-foot facility that opened in 2016, supports state-of-the-art research in automated field phenotyping, the process of measuring and analyzing observable plant characteristics.
The center is a core component of the plant sciences research and education initiative, part of Purdue Moves, announced in 2013 to broaden Purdue's global impact and enhance educational opportunities for students. It is the first field phenotyping facility in North America.
Writer: Emma Ea Ambrose, 765-494-2406, eeambros@purdue.edu
Media contact: Darrin Pack, 765-494-8415, dpack@purdue.edu
