The growth of the global population, which is projected to reach 10 billion by 2050, is placing significant pressure on the agricultural sector to increase crop production and maximize yields. To address looming food shortages, two potential approaches have emerged: expanding land use and adopting large-scale farming, or embracing innovative practices and leveraging technological advancements to enhance productivity on existing farmland.
Each season brings new technologies designed to improve efficiency and capitalize on the harvest. However, both individual farmers and global agribusinesses often miss out on the opportunities that artificial intelligence in agriculture can offer to their farming methods.
Until recently, using the words AI and agriculture in the same sentence may have seemed like a strange combination. After all, agriculture has been the backbone of human civilization for millennia, providing sustenance as well as contributing to economic development, while even the most primitive AI only emerged several decades ago. Nevertheless, innovative ideas are being introduced in every industry, and agriculture is no exception. Introducing AI solves many challenges and helps to diminish many disadvantages of traditional farming.
Data-based decisions
The modern world is all about data. Organizations in the agricultural sector use data to obtain meticulous insights into every detail of the farming process, from understanding each acre of a field to monitoring the entire produce supply chain to gaining deep inputs on yields generation process. Additionally, AI can analyze market demand, forecast prices as well as determine optimal times for sowing and harvesting.
Cost savings
Improving farm yields is a constant goal for farmers. Combined with AI, precision agriculture can help farmers grow more crops with fewer resources. AI in farming combines the best soil management practices, variable rate technology, and the most effective data management practices to maximise yields while minimising minimise spending.
Automation impact
Agricultural work is hard, so labor shortages are nothing new. Automated farm machinery like driverless tractors, smart irrigation, fertilization systems, IoT-powered agricultural drones, smart spraying, vertical farming software, and AI-based greenhouse robots for harvesting are just some examples. Compared with any human farm worker, AI-driven tools are far more efficient and accurate.
Role of AI in the agriculture information management cycle
Managing agricultural data with AI can be beneficial in many ways:
Risk management
Predictive analytics reduces errors in farming processes.
Plant breeding
AI utilized plant growth data to further advise on crops that are more resilient to extreme weather, disease or harmful pests.
Crop feeding
AI in irrigation is useful for identifying optimal patterns and nutrient application times, while predicting the optimal mix of agronomic products.
Harvesting
AI is useful for enhancing crop yields and can even predict the best time to harvest crops.
Challenges of AI in agriculture
Many people perceive AI as something that applies only to the digital world, with no relevance to physical farming tasks. This assumption is usually based on a lack of understanding of AI tools. Although agriculture has seen countless developments in its long history, many farmers are more familiar with traditional methods. A vast majority of farmers are unlikely to have worked on projects that involved AI technology. A huge amount of work must be done by technology providers to help people understand the application of AI in agriculture. Considering the benefits of artificial intelligence for sustainable farming, implementing this technology may look like a logical step for every farmer. However, there are still some challenges to overcome.
- Large upfront costs
- Reluctance to embrace new technologies and processes
- Lack of practical experience with new technologies
- A lengthy technology adoption process
- Technological limitations
- Privacy and security issues
The success of human society is essentially dependent on the optimization of its agricultural systems. Traditional farming methods are becoming outdated, need for advanced technological solutions. Worldwide, the impact of automation on industries has always been considerable. Digital technology is now playing a huge role in transforming agriculture, and the impact of artificial intelligence in agriculture is set to be vast.