Every farmer has a unique insight into their operation. It may all look the same to an outsider, but as farmers, you know that your fields all have unique needs and opportunities—and that no two seasons are exactly alike. Everything is in constant flux, as it should be. The truth of the matter is that the innate variability within your farm demands solutions that can adapt and support your operation’s unique needs as they shift and evolve. And that’s precisely why many farmers are benefitting from ground-breaking digital tools and technologies that are vastly improving what you can accomplish in your fields—and change the face of agriculture along the way.
Around the world, farmers from all walks of life are embracing the many benefits of new digital tools in order to meet the growing demands of an ever-evolving world. With most of the world’s farmland already in use, it will take new solutions to satisfy the ongoing needs of over 9 billion people by 2050. Thankfully, through the advent of digital agriculture, experts are working across disciplines to develop digital tools that can help every farmer work more efficiently to produce enough food using less land and fewer resources.
Thriving on smart farming technologies
The Benefits of Digital Farming
When we consider agriculture’s 10,000+ year history, the concept of digital farming is very new. Never before have farmers been able to leverage and incorporate emerging technologies to gain unprecedented insights into exactly what’s happening in your fields. By combining this new knowledge with your in-field expertise enables you to make more informed, sustainable, and profitable decisions for your entire operation.
New technologies are always emerging in agriculture. Ranging from soil sensors under the earth to satellites orbiting in our stratosphere, these digital innovations can work together to provide an incredibly detailed understanding of how your crops are doing down to the square meter. With these insights, farmers can identify precisely which crops need certain nutrients, water or crop protection solutions, and in exactly what amounts. This helps to optimize your resource use, so you can reduce waste, cut costs, and accomplish more with less.
The United Nations estimates that humanity will need to increase food production by 50 percent by 2050 to meet the increasing demand of a growing population.
Digital tools enable farmers to
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| Remotely monitor crop, pest, soil, and weather conditions. | Gather and analyze in-field data to make more informed and sustainable decisions. | Provide crops with exactly what they need, at the right time and in the ideal amounts. |
Modern Agriculture Embraces Digital Technology
When farmers have to monitor their crops by physically walking through their fields, it takes a considerable amount of time and energy that could be devoted to other aspects of your operation. But with access to digital tools like Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that can cover more ground in a day, you can easily view and diagnose crop threats remotely. And with self-driving GPS-enabled tractors, you can apply the specific nutrients or crop protection solutions to the sections of a field that need them, while skipping over others that don’t. This capability can help conserve water, energy and other resources that we all need in order to thrive.
Automated technologies are enabling farmers to spend less time on menial tasks so you can focus on growing your business.
IoT in Agriculture
We’ve only just begun to tap the power of digital tools in improving how we farm. Here are some of the countless ways that digital farming is creating a more efficient, transparent and sustainable global food system.
Specialized robots are being developed to provide farmers with labor-saving automation, from working together to plant seeds, tend fields, and even selectively harvest fruits at the perfect time.
By providing the ability to pinpoint the location, prevalence, and manner of crop pests, digital tools enable precision crop protection strategies which saves time, cuts costs, and reduces agriculture’s impact on the environment.
Ongoing advancements in data analytics will continue to provide unprecedented insights that enable farmers to make more informed and sustainable decisions, like pinpointing the perfect time to plant crops to maximize their growth potential.
With tracking tools that help monitor the food supply chain, digital technologies are improving food security while also providing everyday consumers with the ability to see exactly how and where their food is grown.
Innovating Toward a Better Future
Advancements in digital agriculture are already helping farmers around the world find more efficient and sustainable ways to grow crops. Working directly alongside farmers, we’re always working to refine existing technologies and constantly develop new ones into the future so that farms, communities, and our entire food system can benefit. We’re also working with experts to help ensure that all farmers can harness the power of these new technologies regardless of where they live, the language they speak, or the size and scale of their operation. Because when we can help every farmer access the insights, tools, and resources they need, it’s an active step towards a more sustainable future for us all.
