Modern Agriculture – Top 05 Valuable Technologies

Among the problems that arise with the rapid growth of the world’s population, food shortage takes a major place. There, agriculture becomes an important and crucial area that we cannot avoid.

In the year 2000, the world population was about 6.1 billion and it will be 8 billion by 2022. Thus, the world population will exceed 10 billion before 2050. It is no secret that there is a serious energy crisis and an even bigger problem is about to emerge.

That is, lack of water and food. Many speculate that if the next world war breaks out, it will probably be over water. Also, with the growth of the world’s population, the amount of food currently produced will soon become insufficient.

The problem here is not to fill the bellies with any food, but to achieve food security by providing a nutritious diet to every citizen. Apart from the direct costs, there are very high indirect costs in agriculture.

The Cost of Agriculture

In agriculture, many direct costs like seeds, land cost, fertilizer cost, labor cost, water etc. are added for that. Although many people do not give much value here, the cost of water can be pointed out as the biggest and most damaging cost.

The reason is that we have very little water suitable for drinking. Sometimes very clean water may be used for our crops. There is a lot of water consumption. Usually, a large amount of water will be spent on that crop over the period from planting a seed to harvesting its fruit.

There we will see that we have a problem with water supply and water consumption in agriculture. So, we have to take help of technology to successfully solve or control this problem.

In addition, energy consumption such as diesel for machinery used for cultivation can be considered as a direct cost, but the various energy and time spent after harvesting the product until the final consumer consumes it are hidden costs that are not taken into account.

Also, another problem that arises as the population increases is the allocation of land space for them to live. Humans cannot live huddled together like a herd of cattle or chickens in a henhouse.

Also the problem with this is that the land available for cultivation is limited. Cultivation cannot be done everywhere. Suitable soil, climate and many other factors will affect it. So here too we have to get technical assistance.

Cultivation has to be done regardless of the climate or the nature of the soil. If there are no suitable areas for cultivation, new areas have to be created and cultivated. If not, people will have to face severe food crisis.

Types of Agriculture

Agriculture can be classified and pointed out under a number of methods and some such methods are included here. Different criteria are used for such divisions.

Animal Agriculture and Plant Agriculture

When talking about agriculture, two areas that we can easily separate and point out are growing crops for food and raising animals for food.

In the cultivation of crops, various crops such as vegetables, fruits, legumes, bulbs, roots and herbs are cultivated. In animal agriculture, animals are raised either directly for meat or to obtain food like milk and eggs.

As a by-product seen in animal farms, it can be pointed out that the wastes that are discharged from them are used in the production of organic fertilizers.

Currently, in addition to the methods of fishing by crossing the sea, fish can be fed and easily obtained for human consumption. Animals such as chickens, cows and pigs raised for meat also do not live their actual life span. They are fed artificially for commercial purposes and used for human consumption.

In that case, the provision of nutritious food that we mentioned above may be violated. Not only in animal husbandry, but also in commercial crops, synthetic toxic methods can achieve high yields very quickly.

Traditional Agriculture and Semi-modernized Agriculture

Here, I am trying to point out that traditional agriculture is the agriculture that still uses the old traditional methods to cultivate animals or crops.

The main problems of these in the commercial world are the long time it takes to harvest, the yield is relatively low, the prevalence of various diseases, the attractiveness of the final product (sometimes very small fruits and color changes) etc.

But those foods are often healthy and are ranked higher. But, farmers are now moving away from these traditional farming methods as this method is very difficult to make money in the commercial world.

By semi-modernized agriculture, I refer here to agriculture that goes beyond unchanging traditional methods and uses new cultivation methods, superior seeds, chemical fertilizers, etc.

Relatively high yields can be obtained, and costs are also reduced. Also, larger, more colorful harvests can be obtained in marketable quantities.

However, even if there is a problem regarding the healthiness of such foods, there is nothing for the consumer to do because of such types of food that are available in abundance.

Futuristic Agriculture

What I am trying to point out here as future agriculture are agricultural techniques that can provide significant solutions to almost all of the problems of water supply for crops, high yields, problems of arable land, and high quality food.

It is also very difficult to inspect large plantations alone. Also, employing workers for such activities is also a costly method. Also, the application of pesticides, fertilizers etc. required for such cultivated lands has to be done practically with hard work and effort.

If the plants get water, fertilizer and other nutrients automatically in the required amounts at the required time, if each plant can be easily monitored, and if a very high yield can be obtained, it is really very convenient for the farmers.

And many people are focusing on new agricultural activities. Because, no man likes to sweat and work in the sun. Everyone wants to do everything easily. So if cultivation can be done easily in that way, new people will come to this sector.

Top 05 Technologies of Modern Agriculture

05. Autonomous Tractors and Machineries

Today, semi and fully autonomous tractors can be seen being used for farming. These types of tractors can perform related tasks with higher efficiency while watching from a remote location.

These tractors are best designed for soil preparation, tillage, planting, watering, fertilizing, harvesting etc. And getting accurate data from these tractors is another specialty.

These tractors are equipped with cameras, radar sensors and a programmed process that enables them to perform tasks with greater precision. This can avoid the shortcomings of having to employ a large number of workers in the maintenance of large farmlands, incurring large costs, and taking time.

Companies such as John Deere, a machinery design company required for agriculture as well as many other fields, have now focused on producing fully autonomous tractors.

04. Genetically Modified Crops

Genetically Modified Crops or GM Crops are plant species that have been genetically modified by genetic engineering. These show differences and special characteristics from the natural plant and these are insect resistant. It can also avoid the various pests that occur.

Also, the environmental conditions required by such genetically modified plants are sometimes different from those required by the original plant.

That is, through this genetic engineering technology, new species can be created so that plants that cannot be cultivated in certain climatic conditions can be cultivated easily and successfully in those environmental zones.

Also, genetically modified plants in this way have the potential to produce higher yields than normal yields. It can be pointed out as a truly innovative advantage.

03. Drone Technology

Monitoring trees in your garden, removing dead leaves, identifying weeds, monitoring insects are easy tasks, but in a large farm it is not easy. A technical solution that can be used for that is the use of drone technology. There are agricultural drones specially designed for this purpose.

With the help of these drones, farmers can collect a lot of data about their crops very easily, with less effort and with more efficiency.

A lot of data can be collected from a remote location, such as the current condition of the plants, whether there is an insect threat or not, the quality of the soil, whether the plants have any disease. In addition, planting of seeds, spraying of pesticides, spraying of other chemicals, irrigation etc. can also be done.

02. Hydroponics

A plant gets most of its nutrients from the soil. Because of this, soil preparation is given a central place in ancient traditional farming systems as well as in advanced plantations. But hydroponics means growing plants in a non-soil environment.

Although you may not believe it once you hear it, this is a method that has been used for a long time now. This is done by artificially building the environmental condition required by the plant and providing the necessary nutrients to the plant through water.

Water soluble mineral solutions are given to the plant very delicately from the root of the plant and the environmental conditions required by the plant such as temperature, humidity, light etc. are also controlled very systematically.

01. Vertical Farming

Vertical farming technology can be pointed out as a method that has brought successful solutions to many problems that arise in crop cultivation. The biggest advantage of vertical farming is that you can get the most out of a small space.

Small countries as well as small land farmers can use this method to get successful harvests. When crops are grown in row, nursery or any other planting method, they are planted only at ground level. But in this vertical farming system, crops are grown on several levels as floors.

If planted four stories high, this gives the ability to get four times the yield of that space. If cultivated in layers up to 10 levels, the yield can be ten times that of the same area. So this is a very beneficial and profitable method.

But this can be quite complicated to maintain. This type of farmland is actually separated from the external environment, within a building complex. Then the plant will not have external relations.

That means protecting crops from insects, various fungal diseases and pests happens naturally. Also, these plants do not get natural sunlight, nutrients from the soil, rain and moisture.

In this method, the light required by the plant is completely provided by artificial light sources. But this is done very successfully. Artificial light sources can easily provide the required colors at that time of the crop, so the crop grows more efficiently.

Also, the plant can be protected from many problems such as damage caused to the plant due to excessive sunlight, damage caused by rain, loss of moisture, drying of the plant. For that, computerized systems have been developed in these vertical farms, and experts are constantly monitoring these plants.

This can be pointed out as a very successful farming method and it is possible to obtain a very high yield, a clean pest-free harvest and a high profit. If this method becomes more successful and popular, future agriculture will probably take place in multi-story luxury buildings.