Smart technology is leading the way in many sectors and in recent years, agriculture or agritech has seen major developments. In fact, Irish farmers are amongst the leaders in the world for adopting mobile technologies and leading the mobile revolution.
An innovative European Funded Erasmus + research project called ‘SmartRural’ is looking at how mobile applications can be used to enhance agricultural activities as well as improving productivity, social and economic activities in rural communities.
The project will see the rollout of training courses in France, Spain and Ireland to rural communities and is aimed at farmers, their spouses or anyone with an interest in agriculture and technology from those communities.
Catherine Murphy, Project Manager for the Smart Rural Project at CIT believes that the training in mobile devices and usage will open up many new useful applications for the farming community, saying: “Our research shows that farmers are keen to avail of new technologies to support farm efficiency. The training course will support farmers who want to learn more about farming and related apps.”
Shane Cronin, Lead E – Learning Designer at CIT explains how the training course at CIT is designed to cover a great range of mobile applications. “There are many apps out there -the challenge is in covering the relevant ones for our learners and imparting as much practical knowledge and advice as we can in the one day. We’ve designed the course in to logical themes including Smart Phone Essentials, Productivity, Finance and Health and Wellbeing."
Training takes place in mid-January 2018, in the form of a 1-day training course and follow-on field trip the week after to an agricultural technology facility in Cork. The training is free for all participants.
If you’re from the farming community and are interested, please make sure to apply early as limited places are available.
Apply by visiting: http://tel.cit.ie/smartrural Email: smartrural@cit.ie or phone:021-4335920.
