I completely agree that it is has multiple benefits, both in terms of food production but also in reducing environmental harm, which also helps some of the poorest in the world by mitigating the impacts of climate change.

Now, not only do these precisely applied algorithms mean that less stuff is going in, at a reduced cost to both our farmers and, with fewer harmful chemicals, the environment, but more stuff is coming out, precisely as Huw Irranca-Davies just intimated. Research has shown that precision agriculture could increase crop yields by as much as 67 per cent. At a time of spiralling global food and water insecurity, figures like these matter. In New Zealand, farmers have developed a way of taking micro-measurements of vast swathes of farmland to identify how much grass is in the paddock so that dairy cows can be distributed most effectively for feeding. It alerts farmers to the amount of feed they have and identifies low-production areas that need intervention—for example, more fertiliser. By feeding their animals more efficiently, kiwi farmers have helped increase exports to China by 470 per cent in one year—a clear economic payback for knowing the precise location and concentration of grass in a field: the application of precision agriculture.

There are pockets of innovation across Wales, in our further and higher education institutions. I recently met with the principal of Coleg Sir Gâr in Llanelli, Barry Liles, who told me about how one of their campuses is already reaping the benefits. At their farm in Gelli Aur, near Llandeilo, in the Carmarthen East constituency, they’ve enjoyed significant efficiencies in milk production, maximising the use of grass and minimising the input of expensive feed. They use satellite imagery to measure field sizes and allocate grazing allowances to their herds. Grass-growth data are measured weekly by plate meters, recorded on a smartphone app and synchronised to a web recording programme. They’re also trialling satellite navigation in experiments with precision fertiliser application. In Aberystwyth University, the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences have been involved in cutting-edge developments in forage grasses. Now, it may sound a little remote, until the practical ramifications of this research become clear. These grasses have demonstrated exciting promise in flood mitigation, something that has been on our minds a lot this week.

We haven’t begun to scratch the surface of the potential of precision agriculture for Wales. I spoke last week about the public workshop I held in Llanelli recently, designed to help develop a jobs blueprint for my constituency, and the overwhelming consensus was that we need greater ambition for the area if we are to withstand coming economic storms. And that’s not just true of my constituency, it’s true across Wales. And precision agriculture presents us with a prime opportunity to demonstrate this ambition.

One of the industries that will likely bear the brunt of Brexit is our food production and manufacturing sector. The removal of the common agricultural policy and the likely imposition of food export tariffs will hit our farmers hard, and we need to prepare for this and to find new, imaginative, innovative means to drive growth in this critical sector—a sector that quite literally puts food on our tables. The market disruption prompted by what is commonly called ‘the fourth industrial revolution’ offers us also an opportunity to do just that: to reimagine the Welsh food economy, to establish Wales as the UK’s western furnace of innovation and industry, all whilst strengthening our resilience to some of the biggest global challenges we face.

We should, we need, to be all over big data like a rash. The cross-party motion before the Assembly today calls on the Welsh Government to develop a strategy that will put Wales at the forefront of the development of precision agriculture. I would urge Ministers and Members to invest energy and enthusiasm to do just that. Thank you.