Connected devices providing informed choices, artificial intelligence deep diving into farming data and providing guidance and corrective measures, simulated environments to better prepare farmers for incidents and hence, the agricultural field is no longer as conservative as we used to imagine. In this modern world, technology plays a very important role in the development and growth in each area and agriculture is no exception to the exposure of technology. A number of global trends are influencing food security, poverty, and the overall sustainability of food and agricultural systems which will be directly impacted by two of humanity’s biggest menaces on the horizon which are population growth and climate change. Agri-tech must overcome food production plateaus in areas that are being farmed to their maximum capacity. Agri-tech must ensure that these areas will continue to yield more food year over year without endangering future generations’ access to non-renewable resources.
With the implementation of digital technologies, new biotechnological solutions and the leapfrogging development of robotics, agriculture has a brand-new reputation as the technology takes a look at projections and the overall state of disruption. Today, we can see the huge difference between the traditional farming methods used in the old days and modern farming methods because agriculture is of those fields which are developing with the high use of modern and advanced technologies. The technological implementation is important because although demand is continuously growing, by 2050 we will need to produce 70 percent more food. Roughly 800 million people worldwide suffer from hunger and with more mouths to feed and less planet to feed them on, and increasingly alarming predictions of environmental shifts, innovators working in crop agriculture are finding ways to counter the problem via technology. We have to figure out how to grow more food, faster, with fewer resources, by developing new technologies to increase the planet’s food production sustainably. Investors have sensed the potential in agriculture technologies and hence, they have poured $17 billion into Agri-FoodTech in 2018 which is a sharp jump by 40 percent than in 2017.
Before 2013, most of the Agri-innovations tended to focus on biotech sector and plant genetics but the due introduction of technology in the sector, farmers now do not need to use resources like fertilizers, pesticides, and water uniformly across the farmland. With the help of technology, they can use the only necessary portion of resources and target the specific area or even a specific plant. Thanks to the potential of agri-tech, investors have invested continuously in technology beyond 2015 as investments in Agri-tech grew by almost 75 percent to reach USD 860 million in 2013 and the number has grown over the years.
To address all of these challenges required a concerted effort by governments, investors, and innovative agricultural technologies and hence, Agri-tech has become a vast sector and promising as well. Balancing the need for technological innovation to increase food production at all costs to stop hunger in the next 12 years is a big challenge in itself. While managing the conservation of the natural resources essential to modern agriculture is no small task, however, access to manufacturing innovations for 3D printing and robotic work, autonomous vehicles that can perform tasks like fumigating plants, and devices and sensors that communicate with each other, we might be able to achieve all the objectives to meet the global need and ensure that the food is provided to each and every individual. With more technological advancements, we are likely to see more development in Agri-tech.
