Ag /Agro /Agri Tech
What is agri-tech?
Agri-tech, sometimes ag-tech, agtech or digital agriculture, is the application of technology and digital tools to farming. It encompasses a wide range of technologies, including automation, biotechnology, information monitoring and data analysis.
Agri-tech can be used to improve efficiency, increase yields, reduce costs and boost sustainability. It has become increasingly important in recent years as demand for food increases and climate change becomes an ever-present threat to food security.
Although most used in horticulture and agriculture, agri-tech is also used in forestry, aquaculture and by winemakers for viticulture.
Impact of agri-tech on agricultural production
Agri-tech is transforming the agriculture and farming industries, which support roughly 20% of U.S. economic activity, according to the 2023 "Feeding the Economy" report.
Agri-tech is used to explore new ways of working in agriculture and to improve existing practices. It can automate the physical labor involved in farming and agriculture, and use the information gained during farming to improve forecasting. Data analytics and machine learning are used to improve decision-making in the agricultural industry by analyzing large amounts of crop production data. The resulting insights are implemented in the field to create automated processes and refine them.
Efficient agricultural production has a positive impact on the environment, allowing farmers to implement sustainable practices that reduce their carbon footprints while increasing profits. Agri-tech can also help meet the food needs of a growing global population, which is projected to reach almost 10 billion by 2050, according to the UN's 2022 World Population Prospects.
Centuries ago, before the advent and large-scale adoption of mechanized farming, the world depended on tedious manual labor for agricultural processes. Food production was unsurprisingly limited, and with a growing world population, scarcities were projected to occur. Today, however, against the backdrop of the technological revolution, farmers have switched to a more mechanized system of operations, and in so doing effectively laid to rest the limitations of the past. Technology now forms the bedrock of modern agricultural practices, and as it continues to evolve, the agricultural sector is also evolving to exploit nascent efficiencies.
With every wave of technological advancement, agricultural innovators develop even more novel and practical solutions to existing agricultural challenges.
Technology Is Giving Developing Nations A Fighting Chance
In developing countries -- where unchecked desertification, crop pests and diseases and a persistent lack of infrastructure continue to threaten agriculture -- technology is providing a much-needed lifeline to remedy the situation. Countries like Nigeria and India already have working irrigation systems that mitigate the effects of drought. On the other hand, genetic engineering in combination with improved pest management systems has severely cut down the impacts of pests on crop yield and led to the production of better and more desirable farm produce. As an example, the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis confers insect resistance to cotton and some other cash crops.
Farmers in Africa are also being sensitized on the internet of things and are conversely using these technologies to better their production and distribution capabilities. In Kenya and Nigeria, tech startup Hello Tractor is allowing farmers (who are otherwise unable to afford mechanization) to rent tractors at favorable rates using just their mobile phones. Mobile technology itself has become a ubiquitous tool for farmers to derive valuable information about crop handling, weather forecasts and agriculturally related policies while also helping them connect to financial solutions and other farmers and traders alike.
Importance of Agricultural Technology
Examples of Agricultural Technology
How Agro Tech Is Helping Farmers Around The World
25 Most Innovative Ag-Tech Startups
History
The history of agriculture has been shaped by technological advances. Historians have described a number of agricultural revolutions, which identify major shifts in agricultural practice and productivity. These revolutions have been closely connected to technological improvements. Irrigation technology was developed independently by a number of different cultures, with the earliest known examples dated to the 6th millennium BCE in Khuzistan in the south-west of present-day Iran.
A major turning point for agricultural technology is the Industrial Revolution, which introduced agricultural machinery to mechanise the labour of agriculture, greatly increasing farm worker productivity. In modern mechanised agriculture powered machinery has replaced many farm jobs formerly carried out by manual labour or by working animals such as oxen, horses and mules.
Advances in the 19th century included the development of modern weather forecasting and invention of barbed wire. Improvement to portable engines and threshing machines led to their widespread adoption.
The 20th century saw major advances in agricultural technologies, including the development of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and new agricultural machinery including mass produced tractors and agricultural aircraft for aerial application of pesticides. More recent advances have included agricultural plastics, genetically modified crops, improved drip irrigation, and soilless farming techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics.
In the first decades of the 21st century, Information Age technologies have been increasingly applied to agriculture. Agricultural robots, agricultural drones and driverless tractors have found regular use on farms, while digital agriculture and precision agriculture make use of extensive data collection and computation to improve farm efficiency. Precision agriculture includes such areas as precision beekeeping, precision livestock farming, and precision viticulture.
Wikipedia Agricultural_technology
Modern farms and agricultural operations work far differently than those a few decades ago, primarily because of advancements in technology, including sensors, devices, machines, and information technology. Today’s agriculture routinely uses sophisticated technologies such as robots, temperature and moisture sensors, aerial images, and GPS technology. These advanced devices and precision agriculture and robotic systems allow businesses to be more profitable, efficient, safer, and more environmentally friendly.
Importance of Agricultural Technology
Farmers no longer have to apply water, fertilizers, and pesticides uniformly across entire fields. Instead, they can use the minimum quantities required and target very specific areas, or even treat individual plants differently. Benefits include:
- Higher crop productivity
- Decreased use of water, fertilizer, and pesticides, which in turn keeps food prices down
- Reduced impact on natural ecosystems
- Less runoff of chemicals into rivers and groundwater
- Increased worker safety
In addition, robotic technologies enable more reliable monitoring and management of natural resources, such as air and water quality. It also gives producers greater control over plant and animal production, processing, distribution, and storage, which results in:
- Greater efficiencies and lower prices
- Safer growing conditions and safer foods
- Reduced environmental and ecological impact
NIFA’s Impact
NIFA advances agricultural technology and ensures that the nation’s agricultural industries are able to utilize it by supporting:
- Basic research and development in physical sciences, engineering, and computer sciences
- Development of agricultural devices, sensors, and systems
- Applied research that assesses how to employ technologies economically and with minimal disruption to existing practices
- Assistance and instruction to farmers on how to use new technologies
Examples of Agricultural Technology
- Precision monitoring. Satellite and drone imagery is used alongside other internet of things (IoT) sensors to monitor crop health and soil conditions. The data collected by these devices can be used to optimize irrigation schedules, predict weather patterns and digitize pest control.
- Automated equipment. Modern tractors are highly automated and come with a range of features, such as GPS navigation, automated steering systems and hydraulic attachments. Autonomous tractors reduce the need for human labor and increase efficiency. Robotic equipment is also used for picking, monitoring and planting crops. For example, IronOx's crop-assisting mobile robots can be used to move over 1,000 pounds of product, navigate a grow space using on-board laser scanning and check the health of individual plants.
- Smart greenhouses. Smart greenhouses help create the tightly controlled environment necessary for vertical farming, which conserves space, expands the grow season and produces higher crop yield in places that would otherwise not be suitable for growing plants. The containment of crops also helps eliminate the conflict between farmers and native species.
- Livestock management. Livestock management systems use sensors and other technology to track the health of animals on farms. Automated milking systems allow cows to set their own milking schedules, which gives farmers more flexibility and allows cows to follow their own natural rhythms.
- Supply chain management. Agricultural supply chain management focuses on the efficient integration of producers, suppliers, distributors and customers in the food production and distribution chain. Supply chain technologies such as blockchain, big data analysis and machine learning can help farmers, growers and manufacturers track their produce from farm to table. Better supply chain management leads to greater efficiency in resource use, reduced waste, more accurate forecasting and improved customer satisfaction.
- Biotechnology. Biotechnology has been used to increase crop yields by giving plants traits that are beneficial for their growth and development. Genetic engineering can be used to create crops that are more resistant to pests, drought and other environmental stressors. New methods of breeding, such as marker-assisted selection, can help farmers select plants with desired characteristics. For example, plants can be genetically modified to produce higher yields or have improved nutrition values. Fertilizer can also be engineered. For example, agri-tech company Azotic replaces nitrogen fertilizers with nitrogen-fixing bacteria as a more environmentally friendly solution.
Agri-tech is revolutionizing the way food is produced, providing farmers with a range of benefits and advantages, including the following:
- Increased efficiency and productivity of farming operations. Automated tools decrease resource usage. For instance, automated irrigation systems reduce water wastage by monitoring soil moisture levels using smart sensors, allowing for more precise water conservation and management.
- Improved data acquisition and analysis. These capabilities allow for better decision-making and help farmers identify areas where they can improve their operations. This also helps them become more resilient in the face of climate change because they can accurately predict yield outcomes in advance or detect early signs of stress in crops before it becomes too late to take action.
- Reduced labor costs and improved working conditions. Automated farm equipment decreases the amount of physical labor needed for a farm's operation, while increasing operational efficiency for farmers.
- Lower environmental impact through precision farming practices. Precision farming methods produce higher yields while reducing environmental effects like emissions from agricultural machinery or pesticide runoff into rivers or groundwater sources. By using technology such as satellite imagery and remote sensor data to accurately map fields down to individual plants, farmers can apply fertilizer only where needed instead of blanket spraying whole fields. This leads to less fertilizer loss due to runoff and leaching into waterways throughout the growing season.
- Greater awareness and transparency in the supply chain. Agri-tech provides greater transparency in the food system by providing real-time visibility into production processes from the farm until delivery at retail stores or restaurants. Transparency helps producers meet customer demands more efficiently while also providing better food traceability should any issues arise during transit or storage. It also helps ensure that consumers get accurate information about where their food comes from so that they can make informed buying decisions regarding sustainability concerns such as pesticides used during production.
- High startup and maintenance costs. The high costs of setting up and maintaining agri-tech systems can be prohibitive for some small farms. Even when farmers can initially afford the investment, maintaining agri-tech systems can be costly.
- Potential for cyber attacks. Traditionally low-tech devices are connected to the internet through agri-tech, creating opportunities for hacking farm machinery like tractors, combines and cotton harvesters.
- Lack of standardization. There is currently a lack of standardization, specifically standard data architecture, across agri-tech systems, making it difficult to compare products or transfer data between them. This also increases cybersecurity risk.
- Overdependence on technological systems. For example, if an automated irrigation system fails without proper redundancy or recovery mechanisms, crops might suffer without anyone noticing until it's too late. Similarly, the need for regular maintenance and updates can add extra costs to running an agri-tech system.
Ben Lutkevich, Technical Features Writer Techtarget agri-tech
How Agro Tech Is Helping Farmers Around The World
Improvement In Scalability Of Agriculture
Technology has also led to the development of more sophisticated and efficient methods of undertaking agricultural practices. Mechanized farming is all but standard in developed nations, and now with significant advancements in the field of robotics and sensing technologies, robots are being incorporated into the farm setting. In the Netherlands, there are plans underway to develop an automated robot harvester that utilizes precision algorithms and deep learning to pick sweet peppers. There is already a functional unit of such a robotic harvester capable of harvesting one strawberry every two seconds (compared to humans, who pick 15-20 per minute) in the U.K.
In animal husbandry, so-called animal trackers and silicon soil saviors have already been developed to help farmers monitor the health of their animals and soils. But novel technology aside, in the last few decades, technology has functioned as the backbone on which agriculture has existed. Form improved storage facilities to ingenious ways of farming (greenhouse farms), it has allowed for the production of more from little resources.
Technology Has Allowed For Better Management Of Farm Products
In the past, farmers lived in close proximity to the consumers (buyers) of their products. Today, against the backdrop of globalization, some farm produce is cultivated thousands of miles away from where it is consumed. For instance, most of the world’s coffee is produced in Brazil and Vietnam; however, coffee users enjoy the product all over the world. The logistics and technicalities involved in making this happen are possible by virtue of technology’s integration into agriculture. High-tech storage facilities now mean farm produce can be stored for more extended periods, or if the need is for an indefinite period, by preprocessing. Aside from propagating productivity and profitability, these improved storage mechanisms cut down wastage, something that was formerly commonplace in the sector.
Dr. Alexandro Pando Forbes how-agro-tech-is-helping-farmers-around-the-world
25 Most Innovative Ag-Tech Startups
AgCode: This vineyard management company helps winegrowers track harvests, field conditions and grape maturity in order to maximize yields and manage labor. Oenophiles are on board: seven of the country’s top ten wineries use AgCode’s technology. Ag cred: in February, scored an undisclosed investment from Cavallo Ventures, the VC arm of Wilbur-Ellis.
AGERpoint: This startup produces nut and citrus orchard management software that uses satellite data. The data is granular enough to provide tree-specific information, like the size of the canopy or the trunk diameter. The company expects to break-even in 2017 with $3 million in sales. Ag cred: Has raised nearly $9 million at a valuation of about $30 million.
Arvegenix: Former Monsanto executives lead this startup, which is developing a new cash-crop called pennycress that can be added to field rotations between corn and soybeans. The winter cover crop protects the soil from erosion and soaks up nitrogen pollution - and makes money for farmers. Ag cred: Monsanto Ventures led the last funding round.
BluWrap: Using a patented oxygen management technique that extends the shelf life of fresh protein, BluWrap allows fresh protein suppliers to ship by ocean rather than by air, saving on costs. Ag cred: Anterra Capital, the international food and ag growth VC, is an investor in the company, which has raised $18.6 million.
Bovcontrol: This livestock manager is helping cattle farmers keep better track of their herds using cloud technology. Bovcontrol tracks inventory, vaccinations, nutrition needs and more. Ag cred: The company’s software is used by farmers in every continent (except Antarctica).
BrightFarms: The demand for hyper-local produce is booming, and BrightFarms is building and operating greenhouses in urban and suburban areas. The company partners with supermarkets like Giant, ACME, and Pick-n-save and puts the farm at or near the store to maximize produce freshness. Ag cred: The company has raised $57.9M in equity to date.
Clear Labs: This science startup is making a database of the world’s food supply by studying food on a molecular level. The goal is to use the information to help food retailers pick the best suppliers and avoid the next crippling food borne illness outbreak. Ag cred: Per Pitchbook, has $21.2 million in funding; investors include Khosla Ventures and GV.
CropX: An Israeli startup, CropX sells cloud-based software which aims to boost crop yields by focusing on saving water and energy. With in-field sensors, the system automatically delivers the correct amount of water to each plant instead of watering a whole field at a time. Ag cred: Founded in 2013, the company has raised $10 million.
Farmer’s Edge: A hardware and software product that uses satellite imagery and precision technology to help growers identify, map and manage farmland variability. Ag cred: To date, the startup has raised $94.3 million in funding.
Farmer’s Business Network: This big data company connects over 3,400 small farms with open data about yields, supply prices and other information that lets them compete with large operations. Ag Cred: Raised over $83 million in funding from the likes of GV and Double Bottom Line Partners.
FarmLead: An online marketplace for grain, FarmLead lets grain growers expand beyond their local market and sell to the best bidders. Buyers and sellers can register for free, and deals are negotiated anonymously. Ag cred: Monsanto Growth Ventures led their Series A.
FoodLogiQ: The average food recall costs companies $10 million. FoodLogiQ aims to reduce those costs by using data to track a supply chain (i.e, food) from the farm to the fork, ensuring the correct foods are recalled. Ag cred: Works with more than 3,500 food companies, including Whole Foods, Subway, and Chipotle.
Full Harvest: 20 billion pounds of "ugly" produce go to waste in the U.S. each year. Full Harvest is trying to reduce that waste by building a B2B marketplace where growers can connect with food companies to offload surplus or imperfect produce. Ag cred: Won the Innovation Award at United Fresh, one of the biggest produce conferences in the U.S.
Granular: Big retailers stay nimble with the help of data-driven software to help them track everything. Granular’s software does this for farmers, allowing them to prioritize their workforce, monitor profitability, forecast revenues and more. Ag Cred: Raised over $24 million in capital from likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Tao Capital Partners and Khosla Ventures.
Mavrx: This startup’s software allows farmers to visualize their entire fields in an instant, highlighting areas where resources need to be directed and benchmarking crop performance. Ag Cred: Have raised over $22 million from the likes of Bloomberg Beta, Crosslink Ventures and more.
mOasis: mOasis is making a non-toxic gel-like soil additive that helps seeds get farther on less water. It works by holding extra water near a plant’s roots and releasing it was the soil dries out. Ag cred: a field test from UC Davis found the product provided 30% yield increase for broccoli - using 25% less water.
Produce Pay: Founded at Cornell University in 2014, this supply chain startup aims to fix cash-flow problems by paying for the product the day after it is shipped, rather than the typical 30 - 45 day waiting period. Ag cred: Its total funding is $13.4 million from the likes of CoVenture and Menlo Ventures, along with $70 million in debt financing.
RipeIO: Former financiers are bringing blockchain technology to the food supply chain. Its algorithms crunch data to calculate sustainability scores, as well as scores for spoilage and safety levels. Ag cred: Joined the first cohort of the Terra Accelerator, backed by Rabobank, RocketSpace and Nestle USA.
S4: Argentina-based precision ag company with a fintech side that pays producers or companies along the supply chain when systemic risks like drought or flood occurs. The startup expects $2 million in revenue by the end of the year. Ag cred: Raised $3.5 million ahead of its series A.
Sample6: Sample6 claims to be “the world’s fastest food pathogen detection system" by detecting a bug within 6 hours. Its products can detect pathogens and listeria in plants. Ag cred: Has raised more than $30 million from the likes of Campbell Soup’s VC Acre Venture Partners and Sam Kass, the former policy advisor and personal chef to President Barack Obama.
Spensa Technologies: Its software lets farmers record, upload and track observations about their fields; its Z-Trap hardware allows farmers to track pests in the fields by trapping and identifying bug species. Ag Cred: Developed hardware with a National Science Foundaiton grant; has raised over $5 million in outside funding to date.
Strider: A Brazil-based ranch management startup that sells a pest monitoring application which allows farmers to monitor and decide how to treat infestations. Ag cred: Has raised $5 million from the likes of Qualcomm Ventures.
SWIIM: The patented process behind SWIIM, or Sustainable Water and Innovative Irrigation Management, monitors water budgets and computes data. This allows a large-scale water user, like a farm or a utility company, to better manage usage. Ag cred: Partners include Western Growers Association while CA's Metropolitan Water District is a client.
Terviva: An Oakland-based company that is cultivating the pongamia tree, which is native to Australia and India, on American soil. The trees produce an oilseed with 10x more yield than soybeans and have the potential to create a biofuel alternative. Ag cred: Company is valued at $32 million after raising about $15 million.
Trace Genomics: It’s 23andMe for soil health: using machine learning and genomics testing, Trace Genomics can ID microbes and other biological data in soil, helping farmers maximize yields. Ag Cred: It’s raised $4 million to develop their tech and has worked with big ag concerns like the Western Growers Association and Driscoll.
By Maggie McGrath and Chloe Sorvino -- With editing by Alex Knapp Forbes The-25-most-innovative-ag-tech-startups
Farmers are willing to buy into agri-tech, but there are some barriers to adoption. According to a 2022 McKinsey survey, 43% of farmers were focused on trying new products to increase yield. If farmers can surmount the cost, security and standardization challenges of ag-tech, they can use it to mitigate climate change and food insecurity.
Precision agriculture, powered by artificial intelligence, smart sensors and data analytics, offers opportunities to transition to more efficient and sustainable food systems. A 2018 report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) named several technologies that could significantly improve food systems by 2030. Five years later, many of the technologies the WEF listed are already in use and changing agriculture, farming and food systems. The technologies include food sensing technologies for food safety, quality and traceability; IoT for supply chain transparency and traceability; blockchain-enabled traceability; and big data analytics.
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