AgTech: Michael Minchin Of ST Engineering iDirect On The New Technologies That Are Revolutionizing Agriculture

An Interview With Martita Mestey

Know that you are brilliant, you are worthy, you are enough. I grew up in a different era, where I was constantly told I wasn’t ‘academic’. Hearing this really affected my self-worth. Of course, I now know this was a misguided comment, but in those formative years, I had to work really hard to find my self-confidence again from within.

The agriculture industry is undergoing rapid transformation as innovative technologies are being developed and implemented, from precision agriculture to vertical farming, and beyond. In this series, we are speaking to leaders, innovators, and experts in the AgTech space who are playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of agriculture. We aim to explore the latest developments, discuss the challenges and opportunities that these technologies present, and showcase the impact of AgTech on the industry as a whole. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Minchin.

Michael has over 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, and started his career working in studio/on-location/live TV production and post-production environments. He later transitioned into IT/IP networks/datacoms consultancy and has a degree in computing in business.

In 2022, Michael joined ST Engineering iDirect to lead and drive product for its IoT (Internet of Things) portfolio — a portfolio that offers a robust, cost-effective and highly-scalable solution, which provides connectivity with a range of compact, lightweight fixed and COTM terminals featuring satellite modems and antennas in both Ku- and Ka-band variants. Michael is leading the IoT Product Roadmap and integration into STEi’s existing global portfolio of products and customers.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?

I grew up in South London, with a spectacular view of the infamous Crystal Palace broadcasting and telecommunications transmitting station.

My parents, siblings and extended family all worked in television production, but I was always more interested in connecting things and making them interoperate. In fact, I spent a large amount of my childhood in television studios, production galleries and outside broadcast trucks, just honing my craft at an early age.

There’s little surprise I now work for one of the world’s most established satellite communications and ground infrastructure leaders.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

From 2009–2011, I worked for Arqiva, a company that owns and operates all terrestrial television [transmission] broadcasting in the UK, including the site at Crystal Palace.

While working there, I was offered the opportunity to turn off the analogue television signal, as part of the UK digital switchover project. This was an incredible opportunity; truly an end to the analogue era that I had known all my life.

Most importantly, this action cleared the 694–790MHz and 790–862MHz range of frequencies that had been identified internationally for mobile broadband services.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

1). Tenacity — working in a fast-paced industry can present its challenges. And, through experience, I’ve learned that you sometimes have to push for your voice to be heard. It’s a balance, for sure, but if I have a valid point and can add value, I am not afraid to speak up. I am always reassured by the quote, a popular Indian proverb, “Everything will be OK in the end. If it’s not OK, it’s not the end.”

2). Inquisitiveness — I try to be results driven and always approach issues with a problem-solving attitude, often trying to think a few steps ahead to work through possible variables and outcomes, so that we’re prepared for when those problems may arise.

This results in me constantly researching, testing and optimizing until I get the results I want. Often, there’s a fair bit of failing involved, but not many people will tell you that. Experiencing failure is just as important as witnessing success.

3). Intuition — I firmly believe that I have a strong sense of intuition.

There have been many occasions in my life where I could have followed the crowd; gone the simple route, and done what everyone else was doing at the time. But my intuition has encouraged me to steer down my own path.

I believe it’s hugely important to stay strong, listen to others, but hold on to your beliefs. More often than not, my intuition has been validated and so I’m prepared to troubleshoot and bring the project back on track, where necessary.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

As IoT (Internet of Things) Product Manager at ST Engineering iDirect, I am at the forefront of a plan to expand our IoT portfolio.

This is a fascinating space; it’s all about interoperability. Connecting things and making them talk together — something I was interested in from a formative age. This has also been a big passion of mine personally, and takes me right back to that photo of me with the wires on the floor of the TV studio in the early 80s. I’m still very much that same boy; playing with cables and technology.

There’s significant potential in IoT. And, as technology continues to evolve, its application in various industries will only grow further. It’ll help people, across all industries, in one way or another, and in our personal lives, too. In my job, I’m focused on industrial IoT, but since it’s my passion, it’s become a huge part of my personal life, also.

Looking at industrial IoT in particular, these solutions help to boost operational efficiency by automating tasks, like optimizing manufacturing processes, cutting downtime and costs — all increasingly important factors to consider in today’s landscape of immediacy.

Companies can leverage IoT data for improved decision-making and insights, benefiting areas like supply chain management and predictive maintenance. It also enhances safety and regulatory compliance in sectors like mining and construction, and augments security via surveillance and access control.

Real-time asset and operation monitoring via IoT facilitates swift reactions to shifts and elevates supply chain transparency and logistics. With these qualities in abundance, it’s not hard to see how this technology can have a big impact on the agricultural sector across the globe.

Industries can use IoT to monitor and lessen their environmental footprint. Its versatility fosters innovative business models and revenue streams.

At home, I operate various IoT technologies, like satellite, cellular, LPWAN and Short Range at home via Home Assistant, serving both as a hobby and a testbed for work evaluations. Smart homes using IoT streamline daily routines such as light and temperature adjustments. Data insights, including those from smart thermostats, optimize energy use, capitalizing on surplus solar or battery storage, resulting in bill savings and environmental benefits. Real-time monitoring boosts home security and safety, offering peace of mind.

I can’t get enough of it.

What are the most transformative technologies currently in use in AgTech, and how are they revolutionizing the industry?

Many industries today are leveraging the benefits of IoT. As I mentioned earlier, the benefits of IoT are almost endless — giving businesses, in various industries, access to real-time data, valuable insights and remote monitoring/control capabilities.

The United States, in particular, has seen huge investment in IoT, and that’s only set to continue into 2025. One sector set to benefit from its offering is the US’ agricultural market. Its unpredictability, at the mercy of supply chain disruption, workforce decline, geopolitical uncertainty, and climate change, all mean that farmers are often on the back-foot and in need of crucial data-driven information.

While many farmers are already taking advantage of revolutionary technology like IoT, there are millions that aren’t able to leverage its capabilities because of their remote location.

According to the USDA, rural America includes 72 percent of the nation’s land, inhabited by a staggering 46 million people — this portion of land encompasses regions that focus heavily on agricultural production. It’s these farmers, who lack suitable connectivity, that are facing a barrier to invest in optimal solutions like IoT.

Satellite technology transcends geographical or terrestrial limitations, offering unparalleled connectivity for IoT, particularly for agricultural applications where other telecommunication methods fall short. We’ve been deploying our solutions on a range of use cases across the world, and its benefits have been felt in early wildfire detection and coffee plantations scenarios, to monitoring cattle on large farms and birds in New Zealand under threat of extinction.

With heavier pressures being placed on farmers to meet the growing demands of an expanding population, the agricultural workforce will now need to manage and enhance farm yield, where possible. Variables which can be monitored and controlled closely by solutions like satellite-based IoT.

How do these technologies contribute to sustainable agriculture practices and the fight against climate change?

The coffee plantation case study I mentioned earlier is a great example of how satellite-based IoT is enabling farmers to practice more sustainable farming methods.

In this particular use case, satellite-based solutions were used to create earth images that helped predict, in a very accurate way, the level of NPK fertilizer that the farmer had to use.

The data it provided helped to promote proper and targeted use of fertilizer, giving the farmer unique insight into which fertilizer to use, when to use it and how much. While it promotes a more sustainable method of farming and reduces greenhouse gases, it also helps them to reduce costs as a result of better fertilizer management. Farmers have also experienced an improved quality of the coffee yield, too.

What are the challenges in integrating these technologies with existing farming practices?

The significance of IoT is being felt across many sectors. Yet, the agricultural market — described as the oldest industry in the world — has yet to fully embrace its benefits.

While there have been significant technological developments across the sector, according to McKinsey, including advances in machinery, the introduction of chemical fertilizers and biotechnology, there is much to be done to convince this traditional industry to invest fully in IoT.

Alongside facing issues with regards to remoteness, there’s also an ongoing challenge to actually get buy-in from farmers. The McKinsey report cites that farmers have, historically, been unwilling to invest in the latest agtech because of the perceived high cost of implementation, and because the benefits — including clear return on investment (ROI) — have not always been evidenced, due to the market’s unpredictability. Further compounding the issue, is that a massive 50 percent of farmers are reportedly simply unwilling to invest under any circumstance.

For me, this is one of the biggest barriers to wider agtech and, more specifically, IoT adoption.

What emerging technologies do you see as having the potential to disrupt the AgTech industry in the next 5–10 years?

Disruptive technologies like IoT, for soil monitoring, theft prevention and aerial monitoring will play a huge role in the future development of the market. However, there are a number of other solutions that I believe we’ll see making waves in the industry in the next five to ten years.

The first is connected IoT sensors. These will monitor field conditions in real-time, enabling farmers to react promptly to changes and optimize resource usage. We’ll see AI and analytics help to optimize farming operations by analyzing a variety of data points; from weather patterns right through to soil conditions, helping farmers to make more informed and assured decisions.

Machinery continues to be an essential part in the day-to-day lives of farmers. Moving forward, we’ll see automated machinery and robots shape the future of the industry, automating labor-intensive tasks such as harvesting and weeding, helping to increase efficiencies and address growing labor shortages.

There’s also Precision Agriculture; a term theorized back in the 1980s. At its heart, the strategy leverages new technology to generate data that informs decision-making and predictive capabilities. In its most basic form, it is a way to observe, measure and respond to change on the farm.

We’ll see this solution continue to dominate farmers’ strategies in the future, enabling them to use real-time data about local weather, soil, crops and ambient air, as well as labor costs and equipment availability to predict guidance around crop rotation, plantation timelines, harvest cycles and soil management.

What kind of policy changes would be beneficial for the growth of the AgTech industry?

Agricultural policies are ever-evolving, and increasingly complex — especially when you consider that some fifteen federal agencies and departments are involved in enacting and implementing farm and food policies.

Initiatives like the European Commission’s Farm to Fork strategy, which promotes organic farming and aims to reduce synthetic inputs by 50 percent, will help towards the wider industry’s drive for more sustainable practices.

To help sustain the industry, increased government spending on agri-food research and development would accelerate innovation in the sector. Governments could provide financial incentives such as grants, subsidies, and tax breaks to encourage investment in agtech start-ups and innovations, like IoT. Governments could establish standards for agricultural data to ensure interoperability and ease-of-use across different platforms.

To help fuel the next generation of workers in the industry and increase the skills of those currently in work, policies could be implemented to enhance digital literacy and technical skills among farmers. This would go some way to help facilitate the adoption of new technologies.

What advice would you give to someone looking to start a career in AgTech?

The agricultural industry is a fascinating sector to work within. While I work more specifically within the technological space, I have vast experience working alongside those on-the-ground so I understand the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis.

If I were to offer advice to someone with ambitions to enter the industry, I’d tell them:

● Agriculture is a complex field that combines traditional practices with cutting-edge technology. With that in mind, I’d recommend familiarizing yourself with the practice, the hurdles farmers face and the technology currently being deployed.

● Agtech is a multi-disciplinary field, so having a diverse skill-set will really benefit you. Developing knowledge about what sensors are available, and their communications standards (such as LoRa), as well as data analysis and software development would be important and help equip you with the tools to move the industry forward.

● Like lots of industries, the agricultural sector moves fast, so keeping up with the latest trends and innovations is key to being ahead of the competition, and knowing what might come around the corner. I’d also encourage anyone in the industry to network, too. Networking can open so many opportunities for advancement and provide valuable insights that you may not have already known yourself. Attend industry events, join online communities and connect with professionals in the field. Being curious about the industry, and what others are doing in it, could actually help give you the edge.

● Agriculture is a global industry, so try and get some grip on worldwide practices, trends and issues, as this insight will help you gain a broader perspective on what’s working and what isn’t.

● Seek out educational programs, too. There are a plethora of resources and courses online that can equip you with all the necessary tools, knowledge and credentials. There are also opportunities for practical experiences, where you can try out internships, part-time jobs, or even volunteer for roles that can give you all-important hands-on experience.

What are the “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started ” and why?

1). Know that you are brilliant, you are worthy, you are enough. I grew up in a different era, where I was constantly told I wasn’t ‘academic’. Hearing this really affected my self-worth. Of course, I now know this was a misguided comment, but in those formative years, I had to work really hard to find my self-confidence again from within.

2). Take risks. We are raised to be risk averse; that’s just general nature. However, it’s the inquisitive people who took risks in history and have helped shape the world that we know and see today. This industry in particular is all about being innovative — thinking outside the box, trying things others haven’t, and seeing how your innovation can impact those around you.

3). Get involved, ask questions, and show genuine interest. If you are inquisitive about something, then the passion will shine through and you’ll often end up doing something you love. For me, this is a big one. This industry is about testing, trying and, sometimes, failing. Getting involved, asking questions of your peers and being curious about how things work are three crucial characteristics for anyone with ambitions to work with IoT, and the tech space in general.

4). Don’t forget the importance of soft skills. Have empathy and self-awareness. Listen more, talk less and it’s OK to show vulnerability. Empathy enables understanding and valuing others’ perspective, fostering positive working environments and collaborative teamwork. Self-awareness, on-the-other-hand, helps individuals recognise their strengths and weaknesses, and how their actions impact others, so this quality can be a real asset to helping others in your team develop. Alongside having the technical knowledge, these soft skills are vital for building trust, resolving conflicts and enhancing overall workplace harmony and productivity.

5). There are endless opportunities out there, so don’t let a negative inner voice keep you to one specific role, company or industry. Do what makes you happy, work with people who recognise your value and who appreciate what you can bring to the table. And, remember, “everything will be OK in the end. If it’s not OK, it’s not the end.”

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

In Bangladesh, the SOLshare (a leading climate-tech company) peer-to-peer electricity trading network enables the interconnection of households with and without solar home systems (SHS) into local electricity networks.

This set-up increases individual SHS utility contributions by up to 30 percent and, therefore, provides more people with access to renewable electricity at a lower cost.

Looking closer to home, I would love to inspire a movement which pressured our UK Government to invest in solar and battery technology, and mandate it across all properties, where possible. I firmly believe that if we all shared a national solar network then, together with all the other initiatives at play, that we’ll meet our carbon zero target with ease and lead the rest of the world to do the same.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I regularly publish thoughts and ideas over on my LinkedIn, which readers can find here.

This was very inspiring and informative. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this interview!