By Naomi Sheehan
Food production is one of the most important industries in the world. Everybody needs to eat, right? But not every region in the world can grow the staple crops like corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans that form such a large portion of many people’s diets. A few areas, including the central United States, are responsible for acting as the world’s breadbaskets.
The world’s population is expected to expand to 9 billion in the next 30 years, meaning the food supply will have to grow. At the same time, changes in the climate have introduced drought, flooding, and other weather disasters, along with increases in bacteria and fungus, that endanger a safe and stable global food supply.
Such challenges are driving technological advances in agriculture. Scientists are creating crop plants that can produce higher yields. Manufacturers are incorporating computer and GPS technologies into harvesting equipment. Food processing, logistics, and shipping are all evolving, too.
“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
Farming is not the stuff of bib overalls and the old gray mule. The changes in food production are eliminating field-hand types of farm jobs of the past, and the consolidation of agri-businesses like Monsanto and ADM have drastically changed how food gets from field to store to table.
At the same time, the US agriculture sector has nearly 60,000 skilled openings each year, but only 35,000 graduates to fill them. The US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture Director Sonny Ramaswamy warned in January 2017, “Nearly 40 percent of jobs in the food, agricultural and environmental sciences will go unfilled in the next five years.”
Tomorrow’s ag workers will manage agricultural planning, maximize crop production while caring for the environment, apply biotechnology to crop maintenance, and coordinate the food supply on a global scale.
Precision agriculture
Two technologies — global positioning systems (GPS) and geographic information systems (GIS) — are indispensable features of the smartphones and navigation systems we use everyday. They have also revolutionized farming, by combining real-time data collection and positioning systems to map fields and yields and guide tractors.
How does this “precision agriculture” work? On-board GPS has made it possible to work in conditions like fog and darkness that used to impair farmers. GIS helps identify specific areas of the field that need irrigation, fertilizer, or pesticide treatments, making for a more efficient and environmentally friendly farm.
The accuracy of these technologies have allowed farmers to create detailed maps of problem-areas in their fields and accurately navigate and plan them out year after year.
Rise of the robots
Given the adoption of geospatial systems, it’s not surprising that the agriculture industry has also begun exploring the use of drone technology in crop production. It’s big business: drone company PwC estimates the market for drones in farming at
$32.4 billion.
Drones can be used for soil and field analysis before crops are planted, which is then used to plan irrigation and fertilizer application. Unlike satellites, drones can collect data continually, much more cheaply, and with more flexibility for problematic weather conditions.
Beyond data collection, drones can also be used to actually plant the crops. Some experimental drone-planting systems accurately shoot down pods containing seeds and nutrients into fields. The method decreased planting costs by 85 percent over the traditional planting method.
Other robotic systems on the ground can help monitor crops and take soil samples, preventing the growth of pathogens and blight. By honing in on problem areas, robots can prevent excessive applications of herbicides or pesticides that might end up running off from farmland into our water supply.
On the horizon are “ag-bots” that can harvest crops, pick fruit, weed, and perform other laborious and complex tasks in the fields. These robots are already in experimental testing, though they have not been extensively deployed. Eventually, “swarms” of dozens or even hundreds of robots could tend fields while monitoring soil and plant quality, with little human oversight.