By 2050, the demand for food will surge 70%, in line with rapid population growth. A UN study found that about 9.9% of the world’s population still goes hungry, so the thought of feeding almost 10 billion mouths is a daunting prospect. With environmental changes hard to predict, we must turn to innovation in agriculture technology.
Thankfully, the signs so far offer hope. We don’t have to wait three decades to see how innovative agricultural solutions can influence human life in the future.
Read on to discover innovation and technology in agriculture to watch out for in 2023. We’ll explore technologies that change the way farmers grow, transport, store, and manage their produce.
1. Bee Vectoring Technologies
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Innovation Blog
Agriculture Innovation: 10 Tech Trends to Watch in 2023
Published on: March 9, 2023
future-agricutlure
By 2050, the demand for food will surge 70%, in line with rapid population growth. A UN study found that about 9.9% of the world’s population still goes hungry, so the thought of feeding almost 10 billion mouths is a daunting prospect. With environmental changes hard to predict, we must turn to innovation in agriculture technology.
Thankfully, the signs so far offer hope. We don’t have to wait three decades to see how innovative agricultural solutions can influence human life in the future.
Read on to discover innovation and technology in agriculture to watch out for in 2023. We’ll explore technologies that change the way farmers grow, transport, store, and manage their produce.
1. Bee Vectoring Technologies
1-bee
When it comes to U.S. crop production, honey bees are worth $20 billion. These insects are essential to human survival, so there is increasing innovation in agriculture equipment to help protect bees and maximize their pollination capabilities.
BVT uses commercially reared bees to deliver targeted crop controls through pollination, replacing chemical pesticides with an environmentally safe crop protection system.
The system doesn’t require spraying water or the use of tractors. Instead, the scientifically designed bumblebee hive allows bees to pick up a trace amount of pest control powders on their legs to spread as they travel within the field.
This innovation in agriculture technology supports improved sustainable farming, crop yield, and soil quality. BVT’s solution is suitable for many crops, including blueberries, sunflowers, apples, and tomatoes, and it also works for farms of all sizes.
2. Precision Agriculture
Precision agriculture is an agricultural resource management strategy that collects, processes, and evaluates data and offers insights to help farmers optimize and increase soil quality and productivity.
Management decisions count on precision agriculture data points to improve farmland and farm produce across several key areas, including:
Resource use efficiency
Sustainability
Profitability
Productivity
Quality
This innovation in agriculture technology uses big data to aid management decisions, enabling farmers to control crop yield variables like moisture level, soil condition, and microclimates to maximize output. It relies on remote sensing systems, drones, robotics, and automation to improve crop health and optimize agricultural resources, leading to more productivity.
Grand View Research projects that the global precision farming market will hit $16.35 billion by 2028, growing at a 13.1% CAGR. The organization believes increasing government support and the growing need for efficient crop health monitoring will drive market growth.
Menu
Innovation Blog
Agriculture Innovation: 10 Tech Trends to Watch in 2023
Published on: March 9, 2023
future-agricutlure
By 2050, the demand for food will surge 70%, in line with rapid population growth. A UN study found that about 9.9% of the world’s population still goes hungry, so the thought of feeding almost 10 billion mouths is a daunting prospect. With environmental changes hard to predict, we must turn to innovation in agriculture technology.
Thankfully, the signs so far offer hope. We don’t have to wait three decades to see how innovative agricultural solutions can influence human life in the future.
Read on to discover innovation and technology in agriculture to watch out for in 2023. We’ll explore technologies that change the way farmers grow, transport, store, and manage their produce.
1. Bee Vectoring Technologies
1-bee
When it comes to U.S. crop production, honey bees are worth $20 billion. These insects are essential to human survival, so there is increasing innovation in agriculture equipment to help protect bees and maximize their pollination capabilities.
BVT uses commercially reared bees to deliver targeted crop controls through pollination, replacing chemical pesticides with an environmentally safe crop protection system.
The system doesn’t require spraying water or the use of tractors. Instead, the scientifically designed bumblebee hive allows bees to pick up a trace amount of pest control powders on their legs to spread as they travel within the field.
This innovation in agriculture technology supports improved sustainable farming, crop yield, and soil quality. BVT’s solution is suitable for many crops, including blueberries, sunflowers, apples, and tomatoes, and it also works for farms of all sizes.
2. Precision Agriculture
Precision agriculture is an agricultural resource management strategy that collects, processes, and evaluates data and offers insights to help farmers optimize and increase soil quality and productivity.
Management decisions count on precision agriculture data points to improve farmland and farm produce across several key areas, including:
Resource use efficiency
Sustainability
Profitability
Productivity
Quality
This innovation in agriculture technology uses big data to aid management decisions, enabling farmers to control crop yield variables like moisture level, soil condition, and microclimates to maximize output. It relies on remote sensing systems, drones, robotics, and automation to improve crop health and optimize agricultural resources, leading to more productivity.
Grand View Research projects that the global precision farming market will hit $16.35 billion by 2028, growing at a 13.1% CAGR. The organization believes increasing government support and the growing need for efficient crop health monitoring will drive market growth.
3. Indoor Vertical Farming
The average yield of rice per hectare is between three and six tonnes. However, farmers don’t have to face this limitation when using indoor vertical farming. This Indoor vertical farming grows farm produce stacked above another in a closed and controlled environment. The technology uses growing shelves mounted vertically to increase crop yield in limited spaces. Quite often, the shelves don’t require soil—they’re either hydroponic or aeroponic:
Hydroponics is a gardening practice that grows plants in water and nutrient solutions.
Aeroponics suspends the roots of the crops in the air, with emitters intermittently spraying them with water and nutrients.
Indoor vertical farms enable growers to control variables such as light, temperature, water, and sometimes, carbon dioxide levels, allowing them to get healthier and bigger yields.
Other benefits of the technology include 70% less water usage, which conserves energy, and reduced labor costs due to the use of robots for harvesting and planting.
4. Livestock Farming Technology
Technology
2-livestock
Emerging livestock technologies provide farmers with data-driven insights, allowing them to streamline farm management, improve animal care, and boost productivity.
Here are some of the many innovations redefining livestock farming:
Automated dairy installations milk cows automatically without human intervention, and the milk sensors also help farmers monitor the milk quality.
Automated cleaning systems remove waste, enabling cleaner as disease-free environments.
Armenta’s non-antibiotic treatment uses acoustic pulse technology (APT) for bovine mastitis, a cow disease responsible for over $6 billion annual losses in the U.S. and Europe.
Automated feeder systems provide animals with feeding mixtures tailored to their specific needs and in the right amount.
Faromatics employs robotics, A.I., and big data to increase animal welfare and farm productivity.
5. Laser Scarecrows
Pesky birds or rodents can be a menace to growing crops in an open field. In the past, farmers relied on traditional scarecrows to ward off hungry invaders. But today, farm owners and managers are turning to high-tech devices with motion sensors to keep birds from pillaging crops.
After discovering that birds are sensitive to the color green, a researcher from the University of Rhode Island helped design a laser scarecrow, which projects green laser light. The light isn’t visible by humans in sunlight, but it can shoot 600 feet across a field to startle birds before destroying crops.
Early tests with laser scarecrows found that the devices can minimize crop damages by reducing the bird population around farmlands by up to 70% to 90%.
Source: masschallenge.org
