A discussion from Jason Scott about systemic downy mildew of poppies was presented, followed by a panel discussion with representatives from Tasmanian Alkaloids, Serve-Ag, Forager Foods and Midland Seeds.

Institute development and extension officer Sue Hinton opened the event, touching on new developments from the Sense-T initiative.

"What we're doing, through Sense-T, is monitoring soil moisture and climate variables through weather stations and soil moisture sensors in paddocks," Ms Hinton said.

"From that information, we'll [create] algorithms which go into an agricultural crop model, so we can use historical information for real-time use."

She said it was a cutting-edge project that would represent that next real development in crop yield and health.

"We want real-time information delivered to growers in an application they have on a smartphone to help them make informed decisions on irrigation," Ms Hinton said.

"The next phase is to use other types of sensors to try to determine plant moisture stress. Part of that will allow us to get into disease forecasting and all sorts of other applications as well.

"It's the beginning of a really exciting development over the next two years."

The use of that kind of technology in agriculture is increasing, she said, and would soon see accessible honey pots of information created.

"It's certainly something that's increasing, a lot of projects are using cloud-based databases for storing information.

"Hopefully, in three to four months, a Sense-T data platform will be available, the information can be networked and stored, then integrated to run apps."