Technology in Agriculture

Abstract

The primary challenges facing production agriculture today are the following: an ever-growing global population;climate trends that affect growing seasons;the availability of water, seeds, fertilizer, and other resources; anda present and continuing labor shortage.Population. The Earth's population continues to grow, with current predictions indicating farmers will need to feed 9.7 billion people by 2050 (as shown in Figure 1). This is a 50% increase in demand for food when compared to today. Figure 1.Climate trends. Climate trends are also affecting agriculture. These trends include increased variability in temperature and rainfall.Temperatures are generally increasing. On the positive side, this increases the length of growing seasons; on the negative side, higher temperatures can lead to drier conditions and less favorable growing seasons.Rainfall patterns are also changing. Some areas are receiving less rain than in the past, while some are receiving more. The incidence of rainfall events is also changing, with more frequent occurrences of high rates of rainfall, resulting in runoff and the potential for higher rates of soil erosion.Resource availability. The aforementioned changes are driving producers of agricultural products to look for any means available to meet the increasing demands of growing populations while using resources more efficiently. This is being done by trying to make every seed count, every drop of fertilizer and herbicide count, every drop of water count, and every grain harvested count.Labor shortage. The population in agricultural areas continues to decrease. More automation and autonomy will be needed to help existing producers continue to grow more food in an efficient and sustainable way.Traditionally, operator safety and protection, vehicle dynamics, tractor/implement compatibility, and performance testing have been the primary areas in which standards are applied to agricultural equipment. Advancements in automation and autonomy are expanding the need for new standards development in agriculture.In the field, advanced technology is being used to face the challenges facing agriculture. The intent of this approach is to manage each square meter of soil in a manner that will optimize food production given the climate conditions while also optimizing resource use. Figure 2 illustrates the concept that advanced technology provides the means to manage a field in increments of a square meter or smaller. Figure 2.This approach to optimization is applied to all operations in the field. The operations shown in Figure 3 include tillage, planting, applications of agricultural chemicals (including fertilizer, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides), and harvesting. Figure 3.Smart machines. Traditionally, increased productivity has come from larger and faster machines. In the future, productivity increases will come from the use of data in creating a smart machine. Technology is being applied to control machines and to create, gather and communicate data related to machine use and field use. This data is organized on a field-by-field basis.These smart machines must know where they are going, what they are doing, and where they have been. A farmer can monitor what machine is in what field, what operation is being performed, and the machine's condition, such as fuel use and machine health. Figure 4 illustrates the application of this technology. Figure 4.Data from machines can also be included in the soil optimization effort. This data can pertain to seed type, fertilizer type and amount, weed type, and yield data. A farmer can set up these systems ahead of time to ensure that the right seeds and other resources are applied to the right field by simply using a phone app.Technology is also capable of dividing the field into small segments and assigning information to each segment. This information can include the following types: soil fertility, including nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and organic matter;t