The world’s agriculture industry faces a huge task. It must feed a growing world population by producing more food in the next thirty years than has been produced in the last 10,000 years.
THE SOLUTION
As impossible as it sounds, we can do more with less. And technology holds the key. In farming, as in so many other industries, digital tools and innovations are transforming traditional approaches, creating efficiencies and providing sustainable solutions.
The U.S. has been an early adopter of agricultural technology (AgTech), from big data and the internet of things (IoT) to the global positioning system (GPS) and genetic modification (GM). This readiness to adopt,[2]experts say, has led to tremendous productivity gains. Total agricultural output tripled between 1948 and 2015 – even as the amount of labor and land used for farming declined by 75 percent and 24 percent, respectively. In 1970, one farmer could on average produce food to feed 72 people. Today, that one farmer can feed 155 people.[3]Most of this is down to the adoption of new technologies.
PRECISION AGRICULTURE
Precision technologies have been the driver for future innovation in farming, enabled by the arrival of GPS and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). As the name suggests, precision agriculture makes farming practices more accurate. It uses a wide range of tools including GPS, sensors and even drones to collect, measure and analyse data to help famers better understand their land and what each individual crop needs for optimal yield.