Technological Innovation in Agriculture

Advances in technology are key to the future of agriculture as farmers strive to feed the world with limited resources. With the global population reaching 7.7 billion, sustainable farming is taking center stage in the agriculture technology industry. Creating sustainable farming practices
increasingly requires adopting new technologies that will help increase crop management, pest control, quality control and disease management.

These new technologies are important steps to allow the present and future generation of farmers to grow without compromising the needs of the earth.

Here are some of the new technologies that can help today’s farmers achieve precision and increase productivity;
1) Laser scarecrows: For so long farmers have been battling with birds. Pests like Crows, Blackbirds and Starling can destroy up to 75% of crops within 48 hours of harvesting, leading to huge loss in revenue. Farmers have tried everything to get rid of Birds, from traditional scarecrows to propane cannons, none of which could completely get rid of the birds. The University of Rhode Island invented a laser scarecrow to keep Birds away. The innovation projects green lighting which is invincible to humans in sunlight. Birds are sensitive to green color, the green light startles the bird therefore prevents them from destroying crops, it is less harmful to the environment and it is not labor intensive.

2) Harvest Quality Vision (HQV): this is a recent agricultural technology innovation that simplifies the harvesting process of fruit and vegetables; HQV uses a computerized scanner to capture and determine the quality of crops. The software creates alert whenever they detect disease, defects and quantity shortage on crops so that corrective measure can be taken by the farmer.

3) AI-enable self-driving tractors: Automated farming equipment like a self-driven tractor or seeder provides solutions for time constraints and labor shortage. These tractors use GPS to track and shut it down when it drives off course.

 

These innovations would be really good for Farm Up subscribers. AgTech innovations provide farmers with better governance over crop quality control, pest management, and even the optimization of their existing practices to achieve higher revenue. These new technologies have the potential to take productivity and land stewardship to new heights and will enable farmers to make smart decisions about new investments.