Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the overall agriculture scenario. It is ranging from processing algorithms, drones, robots and intelligent monitoring systems to on-farm sensors with the applications. This could have a positive impact on the agricultural economy and environmental sustainability. By eliminating inefficiencies, AI is bringing convenience to the consumers and helping farmers to capture a larger percentage of each dollar they spend.
Artificial Intelligence
An installed application with the simulated algorithmic computer models, AI guides farmers through the process of growing, sowing, harvesting and producing.
AI is nothing but a program same as the human mind, that adapt itself to execute tasks in real time situations using cognitive processing. Interestingly, it does not require constant supervision.
Why the Whole World is Talking about AI necessity?
According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the global population will probably reach around 9.2 billion by the year 2050. With available land estimated at just an additional 4%, it seems it is no longer an option to simply plant more crop fields or breed more cattle. What is needed, is simply greater efficiency than before within the current farming methods as farmers will be required to ‘do more with less’.
In-short AI is the solution to most of the industry problems!
AI Technologies Revolutionizing Farming
Let’s take a look at the ways AI is shaping the farms of the future!
- Drones
Most widely accessible gadgets to come out of farming’s high-tech makeover are drones. It provides the new way to increasing crop yields through in-depth field analysis, long-distance crop spraying and high-efficiency crop monitoring. This technology is quickly becoming invaluable for farmers and also, the applications for this technology are growing constantly. Thus, it is likely that drone-powered solutions will be on the top over the next few years.
- Driverless Tractors
Technology firms, today, are developing driverless vehicle technology. By combining the software with technologies such as sensors, radars and GPS systems, farmers will soon be able to hand over farming-work to robots.
- Automated Irrigation Systems
The traditional irrigation management is one of the difficult tasks. Thankfully, the automated irrigation systems are designed to constantly maintain desired soil conditions to increase average yields. Not only does this require significantly less labor and have the potential to drive down production costs, but with 70% of the world’s freshwater used for agriculture, the ability to better manage how it’s used will also have a huge impact on the world’s water supply.
- Crop Health Monitoring
Likewise, conventional crop health monitoring methods are incredibly time-consuming and are generally categorical in nature. Companies are developing automated detection and analysis technologies – such as hyper-spectral imaging and 3D laser scanning – will substantially increase the precision and volume of data collected. With microscopic data collection ability, farmers will now be able to produce diagnostics specific to individual plots or even single plants.
Future of AI in Agriculture
According to researchers, it is predicted that the digital farming and connected farm services can impact 70 million Indian farmers in 2020. Thereby, adding $9 billion to farmer incomes. Whereas, in the year 2018, the Global AI in agriculture market size was around 240 million US$ and now, it is expected to reach 1100 million US$ by the end of the year 2025. Thus initiatives of increasing digital literacy in rural area can be seen as a weapon in doubling farmer income in near future.
Although in the near future of farming, the AI will defiantly change the daily operations of the traditional family farm is yet to be seen. However, with new Agri-tech companies, who are producing increasingly accessible technologies; the ‘Digital Farming’ seems much closer than we think.
—Shruti P. Jambhale
