With the world’s population expected to exceed 7.9 billion by 2022, agriculture technologies are focusing on sustainable farming. Governments and international organizations are putting more emphasis on achieving “sustainable intensification” in agriculture. Adopting new technology that aids in agricultural production, pest management, quality assurance, and integrated disease control is becoming increasingly important in developing more sustainable agricultural methods.
These innovative technologies are crucial steps toward allowing coming generations of farmers to thrive without endangering the planet’s demands.
With one in every seven people on the planet risking famine, farmers are under tremendous pressure to increase output. All of this is done while being environmentally and economically efficient. Farmers are frequently in a race against the clock to sow and harvest with a few hands-on decks as possible, especially due to the volatility of previous uncertain seasons.
This is where technology enters the picture. New agricultural advances have resulted from a technology revolution, which will alter the scene of farm and orchard management.
In this article, we’ll look at some AgriTech innovations that can revolutionize the market:
1. Crop and soil monitoring and management
Precision farming necessitates a significant amount of data gathering and administration. It’s time-consuming and open to human mistakes. FarmBeats is one of the pioneers in this industry, using sensors, drones, satellites, and tractors to achieve breakthroughs. The system operates in real-time, feeding data into a cloud-based database that generates a precise picture of the farm’s performance.
Other apps, such as Agrocares, can assist farmers monitor and evaluating soil fertility, such as nutrients, feed, leaves, and insect content, efficiently and cost-effectively. It generates accurate and timely data that can be used to provide management recommendations for simplifying the agricultural process flow. The invention, like FarmBeats, is built on cloud technology, allowing it to function in real-time.
SGS can also assist you in creating a fertilizer distribution strategy that will boost crop yields, improve environmental protection, and smoothen accuracy. This is accomplished using GPS and GIS to do exact sampling, mapping, and testing. Growers can now have complete control over macro and micronutrients in the soil, as well as salinity, carbon content, and other parameters, to produce ideal planting conditions.
2. Automated farm equipment
Time restrictions and manpower shortages are both addressed by automated farming equipment such as a self-driven tractor or seeder.
Machines like this can operate nonstop around the clock to provide better yields in less time. They are ideal for orchard management because they allow farmers to focus on more vital tasks, such as brainstorming quality improvements for their crops, rather mundane and physical tasks.
3. Vertical Farming
Countries’ urbanization and industrial growth result in a loss of fertile land for farming. Over the last four decades, one-third of agricultural land has been destroyed, and vertical farming could just be the solution.
Vertical farming, which involves growing crops in vertically stacked or angled surfaces that can be connected to other buildings or structures, allows for more crops to be grown in less space. This might be the solution to satisfying the ever-increasing food demands of an ever-increasing population, particularly in cities.
Farmers can also benefit from greenhouse environments that can be implemented into vertical farming. This involves growing seasonal crops all year without regard for the weather.
4. Minichromosome Technology
Genetic engineers have mastered the use of minichromosome technology to improve a plant’s genetic traits. Even though it contains only a little copy of the gene, the minichromosome can be modified through genetic engineering to accomplish bio-fortification, the augmentation, or replenishment of the crop’s nutritional content.
It can also boost crop resilience by introducing new features like water stress.
Because minichromosomes contain just a little quantity of genetic information, they are efficient vectors for expressing foreign genes without interfering with the host’s natural growth and development. The technology has yet to be completely investigated, but it has enormous promise for wide-ranging applications in agriculture.
Because the plant’s native chromosomes are used, there is a less adverse impression labeled by customers as opposed to other genetically engineered goods.
Conclusion
With the collection of reliable data, the advent of technology, along with the desire for greater efficiency, has widened a plethora of new insights. Just last year, agricultural technology investment grew at a faster pace of more than 40 percent. This amounts to around $17 billion.
Farmers can now have greater control over crop quality assurance, pest and disease management, and also the improvement of their current methods to increase profitability thanks to technological advancements.
Farmers can now trust less to luck with a better understanding of their yields and more precise projections.
