Essay Example: Adopting and Learning New Technologies in Agriculture

The adoption of emerging technologies in Australian agriculture is expanding at a rate greater than the consumer’s capacity to understand the opportunities but Agriculture is in the early days of yet another revolution, at the heart of which lie data and connectivity. Artificial intelligence, analytics, connected sensors, and other emerging technologies could further increase yields. They could improve the efficiency of water and other inputs and build sustainability and resilience.

Demand for food is growing at the same time as the supply side faces constraints in land and farming inputs. Rising energy, labor, and nutrient costs are already pressuring profit margins. There are increasing environmental pressures, such as climate change and the economic impact of catastrophic weather events.

New technology’s

Climate-resilient and yield-enhancing seeds

New techniques for genetically modifying crops promise to deliver varieties that can help farmers to keep pace with climate change. It is important to tap farmers' seed systems, as some historical varieties known to farming communities have traits that enable them to thrive in changing conditions. The Seeds for Needs program in Ethiopia found that some traditional varieties of durum wheat outperformed those developed by high-tech labs.

Precision agriculture

The term "precision farming" refers to a range of technologies that generate and analyse data to help optimise inputs such as water and nutrients.

Using algorithms that combine information from satellite imagery, drone footage, weather forecasts and data from sensors in soil

Climate projections

Algorithms can crunch through historical climate data and project how growing conditions in a particular area are likely to evolve.

In some parts of India, for example, analysis of 40 years of climate data has shown that rice-growing areas are better suited to growing millet, rather than rice, because of fewer monsoon rains.

Vertical farming

As the climate becomes more unpredictable, it makes more sense to grow crops indoors where every aspect of the environment can be controlled They get powered by hydroponic and aeroponics - with plants getting their nutrients from hydroponics rather than soil.

Who or what the problem affects?

Farmers are constantly looking for ways to make farming more efficient and grow more food. Innovations are key to feeding the ever-expanding global population with the decreasing freshwater supply. From the creation of the plow to the GPS driven precision farming equipment, humans have developed new ways to improve farming.

Advances in machinery have led to more efficient cultivation of more land. Seed, irrigation, and fertilizers also have vastly improved, helping farmers increase yields.

The competing interests in the problem

Farm consolidation will drive the need for more outside labour. Expect high-tech solutions like robotics to come to the rescue. Already, dairy farmers use robotic milkers as a substitute for labuor. In the next 10 years, the agricultural drone industry will generate 100,000 jobs in the U.S. and $82 billion in economic activity. The rise of faster and more efficient technology may lead to less employment within the industry.

Is the issue ethical environmental, or social?

farming technologies can play an important role in sustainable agricultural production, although the need for a technical revolution would be reduced if there were societal changes elsewhere. Precision agriculture, in combination with more productive crop varieties/livestock and the use of evidence-based decision-making, can lead to the smarter use of inputs with greater rewards.