The rapidly evolving use of mobile and hand-held technology in the primary sector will draw more than 350 contractors, consultants and others to a conference in Auckland this week.
The hexacopter drone targets farms. Photo: SUPPLIED
The Mobiletech conference, starting today, follows a parallel event in Brisbane last week.
Brent Apthorp, of Connex Event Innovators - the company behind the conferences - said mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, as well as robotics and other technology are being put to increasingly diverse uses in agriculture, horticulture and forestry.
"What we're finding is that there's a myriad of communications technologies in the area of transportation for example.
"We're seeing the increasing use of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) or drones, where they're being used now for aerial photography, to check the irrigation on the back of a farm.
"They've been used to check the quality of the crops, so that's a technology that's being increasingly picked up by a range of industries, from forestry through to viticulture."