Simon Blyth

Simon Blyth grew up on his family’s farm near Delungra in northern NSW, where a passion for agriculture and technology took root early. 

Today, he channels that passion into helping people solve real-world challenges with practical, human-centred innovation in agriculture, where decisions made under pressure have lasting impact. 

One commodity Simon is particularly passionate about is the cotton industry, largely because he sees cotton growers as pragmatic early adopters of new technology. 

He now turns his focus to a Nuffield scholarship exploring the topic “Future farming systems: how the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, automation and robotics can unlock the next frontier of performance”. He will explore how global agricultural leaders are solving labour, water, input optimisation and best practice adoption challenges through innovative technology. 

Simon will investigate smart irrigation, autonomous crop inspections, artificial intelligence applications, spray drift control and robotic use cases, with a particular focus on the cotton industry. 

He says while growers are being asked to produce more from less, at the same time, technology is moving fast and many solutions feel too complex, unreliable or disconnected from farm life. 

He will explore how automation, sensors, robotics and AI solutions can be truly useful on-farm, focusing on practical tools. 

His research will take him to the US, Brazil, the Netherlands, Japan and Germany – regions leading in precision agriculture, robotics and sensor innovation. He plans to conduct on-farm visits, interviews, and small trials to bring back actionable insights and commercial solutions for Australian cotton growers and farmers more broadly.