The modern world is evolving at a rapid rate through innovative technology and the agricultural sector is certainly no exception. Some changes are born purely out of innovation in the pursuit of improving efficiency and effectiveness, while others are driven by challenges in the modern world. Rising costs of supplies and a shortage of labour changes in consumer preferences for transparency and sustainability are also contributing factors.
This blog aims to highlight some of these key changes and offer insight into how you can get ahead of the curve…
1. Farm automation
We’re no strangers to smart farming technology that automates parts of the production cycle. Now in the new 20’s – we’re taking things to the next level. From more advanced drones to autonomous tractors, robotic harvesters, and automatic robots for seeding and watering – we’re seeing a brave, capital intensive new world unfolding!
In light of this, it’s important to keep in mind the other ways efficiency and profitability can be improved (discussed later in the blog) because nowadays, farmers need to stay informed in order to gain more insight to start benefiting from the above-mentioned technology.
One must also be cautious not to adopt new technology because it is new. One must be able to clearly understand the benefits and the costs of new technologies like farm automation.
2. Genetic editing
Let’s go back in time to 2015 for a second and imagine someone was telling you that next year it will be possible to buy a kit that allows anyone to precisely remove, add, or alter sections of DNA sequences. Would you have believed them?
Well, it’s true. Not only are GMO’s (like them or not) making it possible for us to cope with rising population figures with higher harvest yields, now CRISPR-Cas9 allows us to micro-manage DNA of our own too. But yes, gene editing is a highly specialised skill and in fact, it gets very risky when it ends up in the wrong hands. It’s possible that entire ecosystems will be negatively impacted by one small, regrettable change…
For us everyday farmers, gene editing is a trend to research and stay on top of. If a new, tested version of one of our crops is released into the market tomorrow, we might want to know about it!
3. Precision agriculture
It is now possible to control more variables of crop farming such as soil chemistry, moisture levels, pest stress and micro-climates. Modern precision farming advice provides farmers with more accurate insight for increasing efficiency and sustainability of crop yields and managing costs better. As it turns out, the emerging new generation of farmers are attracted to faster, more flexible ways to systematically maximise crop yields. In addition to the usual technology and techniques precision farming consultants use (drones, chemical soil tests, etc.), there is now a new software for creating personalised crop marketing plans that reduce a crop’s marketing price risk and enable better collaboration between precision consultants and farmers. But more on this later.
4. Big data
With global food demand set to surge almost twofold by 2050, it will be important for farmers and agricultural suppliers to harness data and innovation to improve productivity.
Forecasters at Markets and Markets project that the global agriculture analytics market will spike from $585 million in 2018 to $1.236 billion in 2023 – an increase of more than 110 per cent. What’s fuelling the demand?
The benefits of harnessing big data:
- Precision data boosts productivity through effective resource management
- Identify good business opportunities (keep your finger on the pulse)
- Environmental challenges are more easily tackled with data-driven insights
- Better supply chain management through more accurate information on the sector.
5. Innovative software and AI
As fancy as ‘Innovative software and AI’ sounds, it’s actually one of the easiest trends to get on board with!
Whether we’re actively aware of it or not, we actually use AI every day. From Google’s AI-powered predictions to the autopilot settings on the aeroplanes we use to travel – AI is becoming more and more common in daily life and specific in more niche-use cases.
CropsProfit helps you to create your own crop marketing plans through easy-to-use digital infrastructure to simplify the marketing side of running a successful crop farming business. See clear visuals of pricing strategies in relation to live crop market prices and easily collaborate with family and advisors.
Increasing profitability over the long-term is the primary goal for all producers, as well as your advisors (Financiers, Traders, Precision Farming Consultants). Now there’s an easy way to do this, and it’s an application called CropsProfit.
Farming happens to be one of these use cases! Examples include driverless tractors navigating your fields and Knowa (CropsProfit’s AI), a chatbot whose intelligence is improving every day. He’s happy to assist you with your questions and point you in the right direction!
6. Harness the power of mobile cloud computing
According to experts, mobile computing was not really a part of our past, but it will dominate our future.[1, p. 3] Having access to the power of cloud computing while moving around will dramatically increase your freedom and productivity – less time will be spent sitting behind a desk.
The platform business model connects all participants in value chains through technology into interactive electronic ecosystems, Airbnb and John Deere are good examples. This trend is picking up the pace and already in 2014, three of the world’s five largest firms as measured by market capitalization – Apple, Google, and Microsoft – all run platform business models. [2]
With CropsProfit being an easy and reliable mobile cloud platform, any changes made by any team members are updated in real time. Everyone on the team stays up-to-date with the latest changes.
On CropsProfit, processing and data storage is not done on your mobile device, which puts the immense cloud computing power at your fingertips, while being available wherever you go! If your mobile device is damaged or lost, your data is still safe.
We recommend you download our eBook below, which not only explains things visually but also points to real results the platform has helped farmers achieve:
Reference list
- Blasingame, J. (2018) Mobile computing will dominate your future. The Small Business Advocate, Retrieved from https://m.smallbusinessadvocate.com/small-business-article/mobile-computing-will-dominate-your-future-3240
- Parker, G.G., Van Alstyne, M., W., & Choudary, S., P. (2016). Platform Revolution, W.W. Nortin & Company, Inc., United States of America, New York, ISBN 978-0-393-35435-5 pbk.