What’s the one thing that comes to your mind when you think of agriculture? Plowing the field with cows? 😛 Not anymore right! All you can think of is tractors today. The extent to which technology is modernizing agricultural operations today is commendable. In other words, farmers today have moved away from the basic hand-held tools to modern and convenient machinery, tools, and devices that have further simplified the overall agricultural operations for them.
Technology indeed is a great boon to farmers from across the globe. It has removed manual labor and – simplified their life and agricultural operations with advancements like sensors, GPS technology, AI devices that can track and monitor many things, mobile applications, and so on. These technologies and devices are making agricultural operations more profitable, efficient, safer, and environment-friendly. Let’s look at some of the ways technology is simplifying agricultural operations today.
4 Ways technology is transforming agricultural operations
1. Monitoring crops, farms, and workers via smartphone applications
Mobile applications and other devices are helping farmers today in a range of things. Imagine you have acres of land and you have to manually keep an eye on everything that’s happening on the field. The sound of it itself is making us insanely tired! Picture how farmers are dealing with it on a day-to-day basis? Fortunately, these mobile technology applications and other devices are helping farmers today to monitor field events from their phone or computer from wherever they are. Isn’t that amazing?
To be precise, these technologies are modernizing agricultural operations and aiding farmers in monitoring crop irrigation systems from anywhere, anytime. Not just that, the moisture sensors in the ground alert the farmers on their mobile in case of the slightest change in the soil’s moisture level. These apps also allow farmers to:
- Stay connected with their farming team at all times
- Access real-time data they need, and
- Place orders for seeds, fertilizers, or any other thing they require at any time, any place
Not to forget, farmers today are even installing security cameras to monitor the activities on the field and their animal farm and get alerts in case anything goes wrong. These cameras even have the ability to share images instantly on your mobile or on your computer in just one click.
2. Crop genetics and pest management
Technology has advanced to such an extent that it can help farmers to improve plant genetics and manage pests. There are a variety of plant selection and breeding techniques that farmers employ today in order to improve their crop yield. This would have remained a dream if it was not for technology. This is how it works – plant breeders focus on improving germplasm to develop seeds with the best of traits as per that region’s soil and weather conditions so as to deliver top-quality yields.
Not just that with genetic engineering, you can even improve drought and herbicide tolerance and also enhance a plant’s resistance towards insect attack or any other kind of disease/fungi attack.
Bottom line: All these technologies and techniques direct towards one thing – to improve and increase the overall crop yields.
3. Predicting weather, and – air & water quality with the help of AI technology
Before technology’s entry into agricultural operations – farmers had to spend months together just to acquire basic farm data. Not just that, they were even unprepared in case a disaster struck out of nowhere, thereby, suffering loss nobody can ever imagine. But not anymore. Thanks to technology!
With technology modernizing agricultural operations, millions of farmers are getting real-time farm information and also alerts in terms of a change in the weather or any other unforeseen events.
This real-time data is helping farmers make better-informed decisions that allow them to use resources more sustainably. In fact, there are tools that can predict weather conditions and allow farmers to plan for better harvests.
4. GPS technology
A few decades back, who would have imagined a tractor or any other motor vehicle could drive without a driver? Insane right! But today it is a reality. Today’s tractors that are designed specifically for agricultural fields can drive on their own with just pre-fed instructions. Amazing isn’t it? Imagine the time farmers are saving because of this amazing technological invention. All thanks to GPS technology! That is, tractors integrated with GPS technology coupled with automatic steering systems are helping farmers improve the placement of seeds on the farm. Thereby reducing waste and costs exponentially.
Not just that, today there are even GPS integrated drones. And farmers are using these drones to help them with tasks such as crop spraying, monitoring their livestock and fields, and 3D mapping. And with the help of the map, farmers can now easily determine how much fertilizers they need to use and much more.
Wrapping up
Though it’s difficult to predict the future of technology in agriculture, it’s just the beginning! Only the future will tell us how technology can modernize agricultural operations even more. And simplify and change farmers’ lives for the better.