Farms Go Digital

New technologies can help farmers make well-informed decision based on soil quality, climate changes, and the conditions of their machinery.

09:43 21 March 2017

New technologies can help farmers make well-informed decision based on soil quality, climate changes, and the conditions of their machinery, among others.

 

Modern technology now allows farmers to efficiently manage every level of agricultural operations to boost productivity and efficiency. This is crucial as global trends forecast the need for boost in farm productivity by 70per cent as the population is expected to grow by 1.6 billion before 2050. The International Food Policy Research Institute reports that agricultural technologies could increase global crop production by as much as 67per cent and cut food prices nearly in half by 2050.

 

Dr. Michael Valivullah, chief technology officer with the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, said: “In the past, precision agriculture technology was implemented by big agribusinesses due to high costs,” 

 

“Nowadays, a continuing decrease in remote sensor costs and advances in cloud-computing technology, tablets, and smart devices have made precision agriculture affordable by many farmers.” And with about 97% of U.S. farms being family operated, the market is huge for these sensor technologies.

 

Using these new technologies would mean that farmers wouldn’t have to rely as much on their gut. Instead, they can make well-informed decision based on the detailed information about water, soil quality, climate changes, the health of their crops and the condition of their machinery.