What is the Future of Agriculture Technology?
Agriculture is the primary source of food that makes it the most important sector. For thousands of years, people have been practising the cultivation of different crops and plants for a living. Agriculture is a continuous process of evolution, and there is no end to it. Already it has gone through several successful revolutions to enable the world to feed its growing population. Recently, the agriculture industry has started experimenting with the latest technologies in the agriculture and food value chain. Overall growth in productivity, profitability and sustainability in agricultural practises has been observed with the application of agriculture technology.
The future of agriculture technology is undeniable as farmers need continuous assistance to grow healthy crops. It has been difficult for farmers to obtain the expected yield in the past few years due to the increased frequency of extreme weather conditions. Climate change is causing seasonal shifts, declining natural resources and reducing agricultural production. Urbanisation and modern civilisation are offering new work opportunities to rural people. With increased risks and consequent failures in yield production, people have started shifting to urban areas.
The agriculture workforce is decreasing significantly, leaving farmers with heavy fieldwork. Agriculture technology provides machines, vehicles and instruments to reduce human efforts and labours to carry out field activities. In the future, about 65% of people will be in urban and metro cities. It will leave very few people in rural areas practising agriculture as their occupation. Farmers need to have support throughout the agricultural life cycle to maximise their productivity in limited resources. Hence, farmers will be dependent on technology solutions.
Many governments and private research institutes, agricultural companies and investors have started research and development laboratories for agriculture technologies. Integration of different technologies and techniques to provide complete farm management solutions is the future of agriculture technology. End-to-end solutions will be developed for native farmers to satisfy their particular needs based on their location, crops and marketplaces. It will help them manage their investments, finances, crop growth, soil health, resources utilisation, and market transportation for maximum returns.
Currently, the agriculture sector is overwhelming with innovations and solutions. Also, it is pretty challenging to develop a universal agricultural solution as agriculture practices vary with geological and geographical conditions. These solutions will keep evolving with a more profound knowledge of agricultural science and technology, and there will be sorted solutions for specific purposes. Farmers will start using them as a fundamental tool in agriculture. Therefore, continuous innovation is the future of agriculture technology.
