The global population is projected to continue rising, and the demand for food is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. As we know agriculture plays a critical role in meeting the global food demand, with the majority of the world’s population relying on agriculture for its food supply.
However, the conventional ways of farming result in pollution and face a range of challenges, including limited resources, climate change, and growing demand for higher-quality and more sustainable food. Agritech is an innovative technology that helps meet the changing demands of a growing population while protecting the planet’s resources and ensuring sustainable food production.
What is agritech?
Agritech also known as ag-tech, agrotech, or digital agriculture, is a form of agriculture that includes the technology and digital tools for farming. It encloses a wide range of technologies, including automation, information monitoring, biotechnology, and data analysis.
Agri-tech is mainly used to improve efficiency, boost sustainability, reduce costs, and increase yields. As the demand for food increases and climate change becomes a constant threat to food security, agritech has become increasingly significant.
Although agritech is considerably used in horticulture and agriculture, it is also used in forestry, aquaculture, and viticulture by winemakers.
Innovations in Agriculture that are Implanting the Growth
Agritech is expected to change the agricultural landscape in the next coming years. The Internet of Things (IoT) applied to smart farming is a good example of it. This has helped agricultural activities by mitigating climate change and increasing food security in 2022 while also revolutionizing modern agriculture.
The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare of India has emerged AI and IoT in agriculture that enables precision farming, monitoring livestock, climate conditions, smart greenhouses, and AI and IoT-based computer imaging to make informed agricultural decisions.
Likewise, the INTENT company has incorporated AI technology with agriculture that helps improve land efficiency, increase crop productivity, and enhance soil sustainability. This AI tool helps farmers decrease production costs and increase yields to meet demand.
Agritech Automation Trends in Farming Break New Ground
Agritech is changing conventional farming with automated trends. Some automated technology that reduces operator workload includes:
Self Driving vehicles
Self-driving vehicles are revolutionizing the traditional way of agriculture. These vehicles are programmed to perform tasks such as spraying crops, planting seeds, and plowing fields, allowing farmers to focus on other key tasks. These automated vehicles are more efficient and precise than human-operated vehicles, reducing the resources and time needed to complete a task.
Automated irrigation
After automated vehicles, automated irrigation systems are becoming increasingly popular in farming. These systems help optimize the use of water resources and maximize crop yield. The automated irrigation system includes sensors and computer-controlled valves to supply the right amount of water to crops at the right time, which reduces the risk of over or under-water supply. This also enables improved crop growth and reduces the waste of water.
Apart from the water supply, automated irrigation systems can also be accountable for factors such as soil moisture levels, and weather forecasts. It also determines the crop types and delivers the optimal amount of water accordingly. The system can be controlled and monitored remotely which helps save farmers time, resources, and money.
Agricultural drones
The agricultural drone is another trend that is becoming popular in the farming industry. These drones are mainly used for crop management, pest control, and precision farming. They can provide farmers with real-time data and images of their crops by quickly covering large land areas, helping them make informed decisions about fertilization, water supply, and pest control.
Weather forecasting tools
The weather forecasting tool is essential for successful farming. With the help of these tools, farmers can get accurate predictions about the weather and hence can plan their planting and irrigation schedules to ensure optimal crop growth. Advanced tools like sensors and satellite imagery can also provide detailed and accurate forecasts, helping farmers make the best use of their resources.
Smart farming
Smart farming includes advanced technologies such as sensors, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics to optimize farming methods and improve crop yield. By gathering and analyzing data from numerous sources, farmers can make informed decisions about soil conditions, water needs, fertilization, and pest control, enabling them to reduce waste and enhance the efficiency of their operations.
Microsoft has recently launched a new platform called the ‘Farm of the Future toolkit’ that allows farmers to monitor multiple climate aspects such as temperature variations, soil moisture, soil nutrient levels, and plant health. This data provides the farmer with a detailed knowledge of the farming climate.
Impact of agri-tech on Agricultural Production
According to the Feeding the Economy in 2023 report of U.S. economic activity, agritech is transforming the agriculture and farming sectors to the next level.
With the help of agritech, exploring new ways of working in agriculture and improving existing practices has been easy. It allows automation of the physical labor involved in agriculture and farming. It gains valuable information during farming and uses it to improve forecasting.
Data analytics and machine learning are the two widely used technologies to analyze large amounts of crop production data to improve decision-making in the agricultural industry. These gathered resultant insights are implemented in the field to create automated processes and refine them.
Efficient agricultural production has a positive impact on the environment, allowing farmers to implement sustainable practices that reduce their carbon footprints while increasing profits. Digital technologies in agriculture enable the standard cultivation methods that raise the income of farmers and promote environmental health. According to the UN’s 2022 World Population Prospects report, Agritech helps meet the food needs of a growing population globally, which is expected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050.
What does the future hold for agritech and food?
The future of Agritech is exciting as technology companies are already building innovative products and services to solve many farming problems. Emerging sectors that hold significant potential in Agritech include precision agriculture, Self-driving vehicles, automated irrigation systems, drones, weather forecasting tools and the use of AI are some of the trends and innovations in the agriculture industry. Connectivity and IoT are also crucial in the future of agriculture, helping to increase yields, lower costs, and reduce waste.
