Are Robotic Devices the future

for increasing Farm Productivity

Perspective

There are lot of information circulating as to how the population is increasing, and not only increasing but actually consuming more per capita, and how rapid urbanization and industrialization all over the world is shrinking availability of arable land for farming. There is any number of statistics in favor of all such assumptions. One such statistics by.. is that while in 1990 the average world food consumption per person was 2000 calories it is expected to be 3000 calories by year 2050! Add to this expected increase in the human population of world … the number do become huge … And pose a big challenge to the farmers as how to increase productivity to keep pace with increase in consumption demand. It also indicates that farmers can expect better deal in the foreseeable future as the supply of agro products may just keep up with the demand.

Compounding the problems of less arable land and less water would also be lesser availability of human manpower for the fields. This would entirely be due to rapid industrialization and urbanization as also due to reduction in land holding as large lands would be parceled out in successive generations. Smaller parcels of farms are inherently incapable of self-sustaining.

Way Forward

The way forward for increased and increasing agricultural (and related) yields would lie in better management of farm lands, management of scare water resources, management of fertilization methods and of fertilizers used, development of high yielding pest resistant varieties of seeds, control of production environment, management of storage, management of logistics to optimize time delays from farm to homes, ready availability of sophisticated and timely weather report, and other related matters.

No matter which way we look at the above requirements, we are struck with the fact that no longer the farms can be tended without smart persons capable of using smart technology. The farm workers need to be trained to use these new technologies and the biggest requirement of farm workers is that no longer would they deviate from what are the laid down procedures. They would need to always follow the instructions to the letter just like a computer. Are we talking of ROBOTS then!!!

There is a book by author Dan Brown where he prophesizes integration of humans with machines. Although even now we do have a lot of such integration with the way we do every day routines like banking, ticket booking, purchasing, communicating etc. etc.

Yes and NO. Robotic devices would need to be used. In fact they are being used at several places in different ways. But the human hand is always required.

Some of the ways robotic devices would be used are:

1. Identifying the very good, good and just good area in your farm and plant the seeds accordingly. This is possible by integration of the soil health map of your farm with gps coordinates and having an autonomous seed dispensing machine that will plant seeds taking into account such factors like the optimum depth of planting and location as per the soil of your farms. The idea is to support the seed best way possible for growing up.

2. Irrigation of plants as per need by having sensors planted in the soil and the data integrated with automatic drip irrigation system so that optimum fertilizers are added and watering done as per requirement of the particular patch of plants. Such a system would dispense water or fertilizers several times in a day in small quantities instead of in one go as in  a week or daily basis that does result in wastage of water and fertilizers. Robots can actually go into the thick fields of crops like corn and provide fertilizer and water directly at the roots.

3. Monitoring of crop round the clock by drones or ground robots. These drones or robots have hardware and software built in so that farmer in one sweep of his farm would get crop health data. Robotics can also help in routine weeding operations.

4. Tractors – robotics is playing great part in tractors. According to a report in published in IdTechex.com written By Dr. Khasha Ghaffarzadeh more than 300 thousand tractors with autonomous functionality such as auto steer were sold in 2016. The sale is predicted to rise to 660 thousand by year 2027. There is some degree of reluctance on acquisition of such tractors at present due to costs involved and natural distrust of new technology. But it is hoped that things would slowly change and sales of unmanned or follow me tractors would be acceptable.

5. With land scarce, green house cultivation of even cash crops would be resorted and this would benefit by greater yields and less pests.

The Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations’ agency charged with thinking about such matters, published a report in 2009 which suggested that by 2050 agricultural production will have to rise by 70% to meet projected demand. Since most land suitable for farming is already farmed, this growth must come from higher yields.

The thoughts on ways and means to increase the productivity and cost reduction are many.

Would you readers like to share your ideas?

Would Farming tomorrow be run like Factories?

About nkp

Hi ; I have had opportunity to travel widely and have keen watched whatever farming practices the local farmers were engaged in. Back home been growing gerberas mostly in polyhouses, but outside in kitchen garden as well. i love these hardy perennials. good for business too if done in a routine orderly scientific manner. Also engaged in farming of wheat and organic vegetables on a small scale for me and family. My service profile has been that of an electronic and telecom engineer and now am engaged in web site creation and blogging.