By: Christian Williams
To adapt to rapid changes affecting the agricultural industry, farmers can resort to the use of Artificial Intelligence. AI can aid farmers by introducing better forms of farming practices and enlarging our agricultural output rates, as well as decreasing potential crop loss, promoting the growth of more sustainable methods, and curing the technological divide in our society.
The agricultural industry has been forced to adapt to the growing population rate. The globalpopulation expectancy is 9.7 billion people by the year 2050. However, an increase in population isn’t the only threatening factor to the future of agriculture.
Future farmers will also have to adapt to the depletion of natural resources, the ongoing change in climate, and the continuing national food waste. Using newly introduced technologies can help farmers overcome these posing dangers to our agriculture output.
The agricultural industry provides the nation with food, fiber, and fuel. Agriculture is the foundation of the world; without the three “Fs,” how would a society survive? This responsibility falls on our local farmers who work hard to make sure we don’t go without. They sustain humanity.
Farmers can magnify their agricultural productivity with the help of AI. Utilizing AI can aid farmers in determining what to plant and when. AI works to inform farmers of potential hazards to plant health and how to ensure their crops will thrive, which is essential to increasing the amount of harvest farmers can produce and ultimately how much they will be able to feed our growing nation. AI does this by evaluating weather trends, soil fertility, and the changes in seasons.
AI can be used to create soil and yield maps for farmers to analyze and plan for different scenarios. This is beneficial to farmers because it can prevent the amount of crop loss and damage farmers face from unpredictable weather changes. Just as well, AI can predict crop stress, pests, or diseases and show farmers how to navigate and prepare for potential loss.
AI also provides farmers with information on what their crops are lacking, how to make crops grow more efficiently, and how to farm sustainably, which enables farmers to produce more throughout each harvest and increase the amount of profit they make each season.
UGA’s Georgia Magazine demonstrates AI’s impact on agriculture in a section titled “AI is Everywhere,” explaining the various programs in which AI has been introduced. TheInternational Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has worked to develop an understanding of AI’s contributions and how to utilize its influence on society.
UGA has shown the improvement of digital soil mapping, weather forecasting, and envirotypingfor the within field and regional scales. They have used these complex data sets to train AI machines and algorithms in the main drivers of crop response. UGA has concluded that AI demonstrates more sustainable ways of farming by informing the agricultural society what is needed for crop development and overall success.
This recent study has benefited farmers by reducing their amount of tillage and making farmers aware of the impact of soil carbon factors, as well as showing how to make a feasible profit rather than breaking even. The use of AI can help farmers detect when fertilizer is needed and when watering is necessary, which allows farmers to reduce their amount of water usage and practice more efficient irrigation methods to preserve our fresh water natural resource.
AI has also been used to determine which locations will provide more profit. Farmers can use AI to analyze where they received the best financial gain as well as the variables in their gross profit margin.
Our farming community ranges in different levels of diversity, and some of our older farming members were not granted the opportunity to receive an education. AI can help with this divide with the ability to produce text and imagery. This can be beneficial to those of the farming community who do not know how to read, write, or speak English, allowing them to communicate their concerns to fellow farming members or share ideas with their community.
AI has made its presence known in all industries but especially in agriculture. It has impacted the way farmers continue to develop new farming strategies and the way farmers can communicate within their communities. The agricultural industry will be facing new challenges by the year 2050, and the answer may be utilizing Artificial Intelligence.