Technological Innovations that will Benefit Agriculture in 2023 and Beyond

With a radically growing population, optimum utilization of critically low agricultural land is the priority sustainable societal goal globally. The predicted burst in population over the next 40 years has brought about the challenge of producing food to feed everyone without compromising food safety. Developed nations could scientifically deduce the reason for growing illnesses amongst various populations across the globe and mainly equate them to unsafe farming practices, post green-revolution, and the changing environmental factors. So sustainable farming practices that would assure safe food that reaches every mouth at a reasonable cost is the reason for continuous disruption in ‘ AgriTech’. 

How many to feed going forward?

According to the Global safety report, the challenge would be to feed about nine billion people by 2050 with the dwindling agricultural land resource and the ever-changing global climate.

How to improve agriculture to accommodate the growing demand?

Transforming the current farming methodology into technologically advanced farming transforms agriculture just like manufacturing.  Agriculture beyond 2022 will become flexible and automated by accommodating smart tools like soil sensors, climate monitors, AI-based predictive modeling equipment, cropping using devices based on data analysis, etc.

What are the most promising farming methods beyond 2022?

Since land is a limited resource and the human population is exponentially growing, new methods of sustainable cropping techniques that yield safe food that is more productive, economical, environmentally amiable, and adaptable to climatic changes are desirable.  Some of the farming methods that are futuristic and that can be automated are:

. Aeroponics

. Aquaponics

. Vertical farming

. Monoculture

. Tissue culture

. Agroforestry

What emerging agricultural technologies are used with the farming methods mentioned above?

. Soil and water sensors

. Weather tracking devices 

. Satellite imaging 

. Minichromosome technology

. RFID

. Pervasive automation etc

These are the most innovative technologies in agriculture that vouch to change the face of current agricultural practices beyond recognition. They promise to benefit agriculture by increasing the quantity and quality of produce per hectare, as they are predictive models less susceptible to unforeseen climatic variations and human error.

Soil and water sensors:

The critical factors determining crop yield are soil quality and water content. These can be easily monitored with the aid of sophisticated crop sensors. The technology now supports high-quality PAS CO2 sensors, which can be used in agriculture/greenhouses. They are highly dependable and affordable.  Research on high-quality, AI-based, affordable sensors is happening intensively. These might help in efficient and automated controlling of fertilizer/ nitrogenous/toxic waste seepage into the adjacent water bodies. This will reduce water pollution apart from reducing the excessive usage of unwanted fertilizers while growing the crops.

The Technology Quarterly published an article on how Almond farmers in California benefited from using moisture sensors that transfer data through cloud networks which can analyze the amount of water that is required to be irrigated.

Smart farming is the future of agriculture.

Programmable sequence-specific nucleases is one way of completely manipulating both the biotic and abiotic crop factors to get maximum production with excellent quality seeds. This technology is rapidly overriding the gene replication of crop varieties using traditional genetic engineering techniques.

According to Technology Quarterly, agricultural biotechnology is doing immense research in the field of microbes helpful for crops that can increase yield and minimize the usage of pesticides. The research is extensively being carried out to make the crops survive in harsh conditions.

Multispectral sensors fit machines like tractors can collect data on the on-the-go nitrogen requirements of the crops. The data then collected has to be interpreted using cloud computing and analysis.

Large IT companies in Europe are collaborating with big Commercial farming units to develop matrix-crunching software platforms embedded into the farm management system.

Unmanned agricultural drones

As the name suggests, unmanned aerial vehicles for agriculture can be visualized as robots built using AI, IoT, and cloud computing. Explosive innovation is happening in UAVs( Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). These are used for anything and everything in Smart Farming, from crop monitoring to spraying and yield monitoring. Innovations in this area will reshape agricultural practices and make agriculture less dependent on human-based farming.  Remote monitoring of crops becomes extremely realistic. Precision farming will no longer be a myth.

Points to ponder

The rising demand for increased agricultural output with the minimum agricultural land resource will be met only through modern, AI-driven farming practices. Technological innovations in the field of agriculture will see a day when the entire cycle of cropping that is, right from sowing to harvesting is carried out with robots remotely. AgriTech will result in a good variety of nutritious yields in less time that require minimum water consumption, less human intervention, and yield with low cropping cost.