First of all, what is AgTech? Agriculture technology is the use of technology in agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture with the aim of improving yield, efficiency and profitability for farm managers and growers.
Today’s farms and agricultural operations are vastly different than those a few decades ago, primarily because of advancements in technology, including devices, sensors, machines and information technology.
Contemporary ag entities routinely use sophisticated technologies such as aerial images, temperature and moisture sensors, robots and GPS technology. These devices have allowed many businesses in the ag industry to become more profitable, efficient, safer and environmentally friendly. AgTech can take many forms and can also include any of the below:
Drones
IoT-based sensor networks
Phase tracking
Weather forecasts
Automated irrigation
Light and heat control
Biotech
Software for disease prediction and soil management
Farmers have been quite slow in adopting this technology for the past decade, primarily because of operational traditions and ambivalence to invest dollars into innovations that are unfamiliar and for some who believe there is little to no return on their investment.
With this in mind, there has been a shift in this mindset over the last few years as the workforce in farming begins to move into millennials, Bizwise Industries predicting that millennials will drive 75% of the technological change in the farming industry. This is hugely important as precision ag is reported by HexaReports, to reach $43.4 billion by 2025.
What most people still don’t realise is that ‘smart’ farming is very different from the traditional concept of farming. Many see the image of the farmer as someone carrying a pitchfork and riding a tractor, however the new generation of farmers can run their farms from an app on their phone while flying a drone and utilising a wide range of sensors and machine - learning capabilities.
Today’s agriculture industry is no longer constrained only to large fields of crops, with the help of AgTech we can now grow food indoors in a number of urban environments.
Rethinking modern agriculture will be imperative to innovating against global food shortages and ensuring survival. It is clear to see that most current forms of agriculture pose existential threats to the food system, with the way we produce food exacerbating climate change, which in turn threatens our food supply. This circular problem requires a fundamental shift to the way we farm and produce food of all types.
Overall technology disruptions in emerging markets have a fit and purpose but none more so than the agriculture industry. The focus of AgTech disruption is not on consumer convenience or entertainment, but on something far more important - the collective survival of mankind.
As the world grows and as we face more and more natural disasters brought on by climate change, we as a population are going to have to adopt more efficient practices to produce enough food for a global population.
To find out more about our data platform and how it can help you make better on farm decisions, please visit www.fbn.com/en-au/insights.
https://bitwiseindustries.com/blogs/category-blog-agtech/
https://www.alltech.com/blog/how-ag-tech-can-improve-sustainable-agriculture
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