Technology is advancing faster than we could have ever imagined. Across industries, new tools are being developed and released each day to boost efficiency, improve safety, increase profits and create innovative ways to communicate, navigate, conduct business and simply get the job done. Farming, one of the world’s oldest and most respected professions, is among those constantly experiencing change.

In the world of farming and agriculture, emerging technologies are carving paths for greater opportunities. According to McKinsey, the agriculture industry must embrace a digital transformation enabled by connectivity in order to thrive. However, this field remains less digitized when compared to others. Though advances have been mostly mechanical (e.g., more powerful machinery) and genetic (e.g., better seeds and fertilizers), more complex digital tools are necessary for future improvement. Infact, currently very few use any connected “smart” equipment or devices to access data and perform tasks.

Here are a few agriculture technologies trends that are helping modern farmers make better, faster and smarter decisions and shaping the future of farming.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is, essentially, the ability of a computer to imitate capabilities of the human mind and actions of the human body. AI computers can learn and apply facts and processes, recognize objects, understand language and solve problems in order to successfully perform humanlike functions. In farming, AI has the power to increase revenues, boost resource efficiencies and improve sustainability

AI helps farmers:

• Analyze a variety of real-time and future data to make more informed decisions, including weather and temperature forecasting, water usage and soil conditions.
• To optimize their planning in order to generate a better harvest by determining crop choices and resource utilization.
• To harvest crops at a higher volume and faster rate than humans – thereby reducing labor and yielding more accurate results.

Internet of Things (IoT) sensors

The arrival of the IoT era has been revolutionizing various fields of our current world. Precision agriculture is recognized as one sustainable, eco-friendly, and profitable mode to improve agriculture yields and quality, and will ultimately come true with the further implementation of IoT techniques in agriculture.

IoT sensors are having a big impact on agriculture. Farmers can place them in their fields to monitor crops remotely, ranchers can use them to track the health of their animals, and both can place sensors on their equipment to monitor machine health and reduce downtime. IoT’s ability to warn you before that downtime happens means you can act to prevent it and keep equipment up and running.

Automation / Robotics

Robotics has evolved handsomely, and we aren’t surprised when machines are doing farming jobs. It has acknowledged farm automation, or so-called smart-farming, by easing the workload on human resources. Thus, you can meet the international promise of meeting the rising population’s demand by producing much-needed agro-produce with less human intervention and faster. Drones, custom tractors, watering motors, harvesters, and more modern-technology blessings for agriculture automation.

Few real time scenarios where Robots are being used

• Autonomous tractors that are programmed in advance to perform driverless control
• Using computer vision for seeding and sprinkling pesticide where required.

Drone Farming

Drones aren’t just for photographers! These hovering robots also help farmers surveil large areas and gather data to create important insights about their farms from virtually anywhere. Drones are used in farming to provide more frequent, cost-effective remote monitoring of crops and livestock. They’re also able to analyze field conditions and drop proper interventions such as fertilizers, nutrients and pesticides where necessary

Imbibing technology in the agriculture helps produce healthy crops, control pests, monitor soil and develop a range of farming-oriented tasks. These disruptive trends will aid the industry in overcoming challenges.