What is Smart Farming?
17 Jun 2019Farms are becoming more important than ever as the number of people on the planet requiring food balloons and available landmass designated for farming shrinks. Forbes suggests that food production will need to increase by 70 percent by 2050 to feed a world’s population that will approach 10 billion.
Future proofing agriculture is a bigger challenge than the average person realizes. One thing that is changing the outlook of farming though, smart farming. In fact, smart farming may be the key to future growth in agriculture. But what is it?
Smart farming is a process by which we use a combination of data and technology to improve the quantity and quality of production on the world’s farms. It’s already happening, to some degree, on large-scale or corporate farms around the world. Even smaller, family farms are beginning to adopt technology to improve crop yields, map soul, and monitor livestock.
These are some of the ways today’s farms are using smart farming technology to improve crop yields, conserve resources, and maximize production.
Data Collection and Analysis
Big data is the way the world moves today. Farms are no exceptions. Collection soil samples provide farmers with invaluable information about the nutrients in the soil, potential nutrient depletions, and even how much moisture is in the soil to let them know when optimal times for watering may be.
GPS Technology Creates Greater Precision and Efficiency
The use of GPS technology on modern farms can help farmers operate in field conditions that would have made it impossible to work only years before. This includes working in darkness, dust, fog, and rain. It improves efficiency for farms by allowing farmers to control tractors for field maintenance and planting without involving human labor in the process. It also helps farmers track crop yields in a way that wouldn’t be possible without GPS tracking and navigation technology.
Help Farmers Improve Vehicle Maintenance
As the need for bigger and better technology on modern farms grows, so do the expenses. This technology, though, can help you reduce expenses at the same time, in the following ways and more:
- Provide timely reminders about routine maintenance of tractors and farm equipment.
- Reduce fuel costs by planning more efficient planting configurations.
- Reduce wasted seeds, fertilizers, and labor by identifying nutrient shortfalls in the soil and correcting them.
The biggest gift smart farms present to farmers, though, is the ability to maintain records from year to year to see what difference makers may have been. Knowing the things that have had positive effects in the past can help farmers create more efficient plans for future plantings. Ultimately it is going to require more farmers working smarter rather than harder to avoid massive hunger and starvation. Technology is a tool that can make that happen.
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