Reforming agriculture using AI – Smart Farming

AI is the buzz word these days for the unthinkable innovations that it is bringing for different industries like healthcare, automobile, image processing, etc. The world is changing with AI and the agriculture industry is gaining on. The way agriculture is practiced today and the way it was practiced 100 years back has a prominent difference. So, yes, AI is setting its step in the agriculture industry as well.

Drones, automated tractors, satellite imaging, robotic harvesting, and precision farming are and will be used to improve the yield, cost and other key factors of the agriculture industry. IoT sensors and automated farming tools can measure soil moisture, irrigation while drones can monitor the quality of the crops to improve the agriculture business.

This digital smart farming is referred to by worldwide experts as agriculture 4.0. These digital farms will be much more efficient and sustainable compared to conventional farms. The world population is expected to rise to 9.1 billion by 2050 and hence, we need advanced technologies to ensure swift go-to-the-market crops.

Satellite Imaging:

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Using drones in agriculture farms will help in monitoring crop growth and in-turn production. Drones can monitor each stage of production and help farmers take data-based decisions. They can help farmers get an aerial view of their farms. This bird-eye view will bring out issues related to irrigation, soil change, pest or fungal incursion.

By identifying the problematic factors, a farmer can take preventive actions and improve the yield. They will not need to walk on the farm and inspect each plant individually. It will rather give farmers time to concentrate on the big picture of production and management.

Before farming commences on a farm, using drones, the farm can be inspected for its health. For the crop to be planted, the drones can give an aerial view of the farm before seed sowing instead of facing a loss in the future due to failure of crop or less growth.

Self-driven automated tractors:

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Just like driverless cars, driverless self-driven tractors don’t need a human to drive. They are programmed in a way that they can move precisely without any intervention. They can detect humans, animals or any other obstacle coming in their path and act accordingly.

They can tilt a farm just like a normal tractor and sow seeds. They can monitor their speed, position, and other factors while performing their task. They operate using a remote control or a supervisor monitoring in a control station.

They can reduce the time and efforts spent on on-farm activities and create a safer and fast way of farming thus, relieving the stress of farmers.

Analytics-based precision farming:

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Technology like crop modeling can be used to implement precision farming; by using sensors a crop model can be created. A farmer has to simply wire information like soil type, the quantity of fertilizer used, and the day of seed sowing. The application will model the crop and provide the farmer when to expect which stage of the crop, quantity of the yield, and quality of the yield.

Farmers can plant such sensors in the farm and get the expected yield information. Depending on the result of the application they can plan ways to improve the crop’s quality. They will not need to inspect the crops daily and manually for the growth.

Robotic harvesting:

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Robotic harvesting machines are been created by companies to not just overcome the labor gaps but also to speed up the harvesting process. These machines can pluck ripe strawberries or pluck apples from trees. The manufacturing robots are common but harvesting robots are something new and exciting in many ways.

These machines operate on machine vision and sensor fusion to figure out where the harvest is and pluck it from there; they have precise sophisticated ways for harvesting. Also, it will mimic human cognition and action. A farmer won’t have to take efforts in cutting each harvest and storing it without spoiling it.

Fewer efforts, more yield and reduced cost for farmers

Every year farmers loose portion of their yield because they can’t predict the quality or quantity of their crops. With such technologies, they will have to put less effort and monitor the condition of crops daily to improve their crops. Technology can helps farmers generate the revenue that they deserve for the efforts they put in growing a crop.