Agricultural technologies cover all tech that is used on a farm to help growers within the process of crop production. There are a variety of modern agricultural machines designed specifically for smart agricultural process management.
It could be machines for soil tillage, seeds planting, irrigation, fertilization, harvesting, and more. Such machines have allowed for significant increase in crop yield, hence increasing the overall farm revenue.
We’ve gathered the most buzz-surrounded agricultural technologies to showcase how they aid growers and impact modern farming overall.
GPS
GIS-based agriculture implies the use of satellites and drones for data collection and analysis. The data could be on vegetation, soil condition, weather patterns, and more, which significantly enhances the precision of decision-making. Using GIS-powered software for field management, farmers can easily map and monitor any changes in temperature, moisture, crop yields, plant health, and more.
Complementing such software with smart machinery, they can also optimize fertilizer, pesticide, and water use, not having to apply it on the entire field but only on zones that require any. This allows for conservation of not only effort, but also time and money on crop production.
On top of that, GPS can be used to document the farmland status. GPS makes it easier to identify and document yields from each field, while also enabling convenient application rates tracking.
Farm Machines
The prospects for unmanned technologies in agriculture are already impressive today, although there is still a long way to go before complete robotization of the agricultural business. The future of agriculture belongs to unmanned vehicles that never get tired, complete tasks at any time of the day, do not depend on the weather, and can work without human intervention.
If earlier these automated systems were developed only by the largest innovative companies, today startups all over the world are working in this direction.
Currently, at farmers disposal are automated tractors, harvesters, planting and fertilizing robots, and much more. The biggest benefit such machines offer farmers is covering their need to satisfy labor, while also lowering labor costs. Besides, since these robots are usually guided by GPS tracking, they can also be easily navigated in the field to perform any task with the highest possible precision.
Field Sensors
The use of sensors in agricultural activities is critical to ensure smart farming. Spanned over tens of square kilometers, they can continuously transmit information about the state of monitored objects – in particular, the value of parameters such as humidity, soil and air temperature, plant health, soil organic matter content and pH level, and more.
Having all of this data, agronomists can easily detect field heterogeneity to make accurate decisions on water, fertilizers, and pesticides application in different field zones. Such sensors are also usually connected to cloud services for the timely transfer of information and remote access to data.
Biotechnology
Biotechnology in farming implies the use of biological processes and agents for the creation of new crop types with desired properties. Crop cultivation is subject to the negative influence of a number of factors – weeds, pests, nematodes, phytopathogenic fungi, bacteria, viruses, adverse weather and climatic conditions.
If not addressed, these issues can significantly lower yields of cultivated crops, and hence reduce the potential profit.
Modern biotechnology offers a number of solutions that can help with battling these problems. Here are the most used of them:
- Breeding crop varieties that are resistant to pests and unfavorable environmental factors
- Development of biological means of pest control by using natural crop enemies and parasites
- Increasing the productivity of agricultural crops and their nutritional (fodder) value through genetic engineering
Positive Effect of Agricultural Technology on Farming
Here are the biggest benefits agricultural technology has offered growers.
Crop Rotation
Thanks to modern farming tech, growers can plan crop rotation based on reliable and smart data. Besides, they can plant the same field with different crops at different times of the year, which will also result in increased farm productivity.
Yield Increase
New technology enables easier, remote, and reliable crop monitoring over the span of its cultivation. Farmers can now detect weather threats, pests infestation, and more to react accordingly and timely to protect crops and save yield.
Cost-efficiency
Using modern agricultural tech on their fields, farmers can optimize crop management by making precise, data-based decisions and cutting costs on inputs and labor, which means lower costs on production, higher yields, and higher income.
