12 April 2022
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Robotics might come in handy when transforming agriculture says expert
How will farm automation make the lives of those in the agricultural business easier, regardless of their position? There are quite a few places where robotics might come in handy when transforming agriculture. AgriTech Practice Leader at Intellias, Dmytro Lenniy, shared his insights in a recent blog ...
The world is embracing IoT, as it does not deprive people of their jobs. Instead, it saves them from being exploited and lets them gain new skills, become professionals, and secure a better, safer, and more stable future for their families. The only challenge that lies ahead is to learn something new that automatic farm systems require of them.
Monitoring and analytics: Aside from the holy trinity of seeding, weeding, and picking, agricultural software and hardware is being heavily used for monitoring and analyzing crops, which is essential for preserving them until harvesting. It’s no wonder the global market for agricultural robots is expected to grow from $4.9 billion in 2021 to $11.9 billion by 2026 according to Markets and Markets. This is a CAGR of 19.3%. Agricultural robotics help farmers detect maladies, eradicate them, and live up to market expectations by preserving crops from tillage to harvesting.
Guidance: Timely and refined decision-making is what successful farming boils down to in 90% of cases. The other 10% is luck due to fluctuating weather conditions. Meanwhile, all other factors such as soil quality, crop ripeness, and crop health can easily be defined with the help of agricultural robotics. Yet it seems like the technology has already gone extra. In accordance with Riaz (2021), agricultural robotics have made a step forward by enabling multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM), which lets farmers not only define what’s wrong and right but also rank alternatives from low to high priority.
Irrigation: Robotic irrigation cuts down farming costs.
It looks like there actually is something special about farmers who wonder how to make an automatic farm. Automation in farming is all about protecting people from exploitation and teaching people new things that will, at the very least, grant them unique knowledge and experience required for further employment.
Change is inevitable
Farm automation is not something that came out of the blue and started forcing agribusinesses to adopt it using sticks rather than carrots. It has resulted from a long-lived process of introducing digital technologies into the agricultural industry, which has eventually proven that farmers are better off with automated solutions than without.
As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, farming automation solutions are only going to double their presence on farms, simultaneously changing the role people play in the farming process. Yet there’s no need to worry. No job loss is intended, as farming automation is rather about enjoying the process and being sure of the result your fields provide and not about farming condition overload. Yes, jobs will change their essence, but they will still be there - safe, legal, and advanced.
Source: Intellias
Photos from top left: John Deere’s new autonomous tractor concept is a very compact electric drive unit with integrated attachment.; Dewulf and Agrointelli announced last year that are working together to explore the benefits of using autonomous machines in potato cultivation; Trimble recently partnered with HORSCH to make autonomous tractors and other equipment more accessible.
