All our daily activities are related to a technological process. The benefit of this science is very significant for humanity. After the industrial revolution, scientific knowledge has had an unstoppable growth, allowing machinery and innovation to make our lives much more manageable. The goal of tech is to increase production, meet people’s needs, and improve the lives of humans.
The agricultural industry has had a fantastic turnaround. This practice continues to be successful in many countries, even in pandemic and lockdown contexts. A study from The Print found that agriculture grew by 3 percent in India during Covid-19 and will continue in that path in 2021. This industry generates food for millions of people around the world. It is one of the leading food and raw material producers for many companies.
In the 21st century, the growth and good performance of agriculture are due not only to manual work but also to technological innovation. This article will review how the tech industry works as a team with agriculture and the trends for 2021 in this area.
Data for Agriculture
Private investment is an indispensable part of the search for an efficient agricultural system. Ag-Tech Startups are revolutionizing this industry forever. For several years the development of these companies has positively impacted food production, especially with data processing.
One of these companies is AGERpoint. This startup works with a satellite system that manages citrus and nut orchards. The software collects data on what trees can look like, their sizes, and the dimensions of the trunk. A Forbes report revealed that this company had an estimated growth margin of $3 million in sales for 2017, a trend that would continue for many years. In addition to these proposals, it is interesting to analyze how the data science market is growing around the world. More and more people and companies request these services to solve problems.
Robotic Agriculture
Automation is not just a topic in car or computer factories. In agriculture, this trend receives much more attention than before. You may think agriculture is about people planting and harvesting fruits and vegetables, plowing the land, and watering the plants, yet robots are taking over these spaces as well.
“Smart Agriculture” is a tech industry strategy to produce more food using the fewest possible resources. This trend includes autonomous machinery, irrigation drones, harvesting robots, automatic irrigation, sowing equipment, and much more.
Greenhouses 2.0
Although greenhouses were created for educational and botanical purposes, they have been included in the agricultural industry little by little. This system has excellent support from the tech industry to offer better results in food production. These fields are part of providing fruits and vegetables in the cities since urban centers need to buy these foods due to the lack of space for planting.
Can this be a solution for healthy city food? The investment of greenhouses 2.0 means that cities and places where vegetable production is scarce will have much cheaper access. These new greenhouse systems have digital monitoring, LED lighting technology, automatic irrigation, and thermostat systems that regulate the temperature according to the type of plant.
Drip Irrigation
Is it possible to grow food in a desert? Tech companies in Israel have used all their potential and intelligence to develop innovative plans for cultivation. One of the most noteworthy ideas of recent times was the drip irrigation system. The Polish-Israeli firm Simcha Blass created a sustainable method that consists of a pipe that sprinkles drops of water directly to the plants’ roots.
Although the idea began in 1960, its success has spread to more than 100 countries. One of this process’s main benefits is that evaporation is reduced between 15 and 30 percent, which benefits agriculture in arid climates, where the sun’s rays are powerful. This represents a better relationship between water and air, allowing the plants to flourish strongly. Drip irrigation is part of an initiative to grow food in poor, arid countries.
Conclusion:
The tech industry is an ally for everything we do. We all know that hunger and poverty are problematic issues. However, these proposals allow us to dream of a much better future. We can all eat healthy food and produce agricultural goods efficiently, without destroying the planet.
