During the past decade, the agriculture industry has been facing the ever increasing demand for produce as the world population grows. The current sustainable way of farming will no longer be sufficient to satisfy the needs of the average consumer as the population grows in size – because of this, changes and advancements need to be made as soon as possible. The agriculture technology which is also known as AgTech will ultimately be the solution for this because in order to solve the issue of growing enough food to sustain the planet will boil down to efficiency accompanied by sustainability in the farming sector. Fortunately, AgTech has gained a lot of momentum during the past years as the investment for it has grown to a stunning 4.5 billion dollars. This does not guarantee, however, that the agriculture industry is not at risk in terms of resource availability for the future. According to the latest studies that were made in the US, farmers need to increase their efficiency and the amount of produce that is grown by nearly 60 percent by the year 2032. Let’s talk about how this can be achieved via agriculture technology and what trends will make the biggest impact on farming productivity.

Internet of Things and Its Implementation For Produce Growing and Yield Optimization

The IoT technology is slowly gaining momentum in the farming sector and according to the stipulations that were done by huge players in the industry, its estimated value will increase even more once the technology will reach maturity. As of now, Internet of Things is being incorporated into crop fields in order to achieve more clarity on crop health monitoring, however, the biggest aspect of this tech that will truly 10X the productivity of all farms across the globe is the use of sensors. By using IoT sensors, farmers will be able to accurately monitor when crops need watering, what diseases they are prone to and what is their overall health at any given moment. This will be possible because the sensors that will be in use will collect data by scanning every single (or a group) crop on the field. Now, by having the ability to check how the farm is doing remotely, farmers will be able to make calculated and educated decisions regarding what needs to be improved on their farms.

IoT Powered AgTech Equipment

Just like monitoring crops, the equipment that will be used to harvest the produce will be monitored as well. The new generation of AgTech that will have this installed will be capable of monitoring how crops are harvested and the sensors that will be attached to the equipment will be able to estimate when the piece of technology needs to be serviced for optimal performance.

Crop Health Optimization and Monitoring Using Drones

Wireless drone technology is already playing a big role in US agriculture as a huge percentage of farmers are using them to get a birds-eye view of their farm. This is specifically huge in terms of farm optimization because drones are capable of creating a 3D model of the entire farm which can then be turned into a Digital Twin. Without drones, the only way a farmer could get the full view of his farm would be to take photos or video from a plane, which is obviously not the most cost-efficient option long term – drones eliminate this obstacle once and for all.