INNOVATIONS IN AGRICULTURE 0 Innovations in Agriculture Student Paper Goldey-Beacom College Research Statement This report will examine the role of innovation and technology in farming today

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INNOVATIONS IN AGRICULTURE 0

Innovations in Agriculture

Student Paper

Goldey-Beacom College

Research Statement

This report will examine the role of innovation and technology in farming today.

Purpose

The purpose of this essay is to explain to the general public how computers, drones, and advances in plant growth have changed the industry forever.

Background and Significance

Through the years farming has changed dramatically, from mule and plow to large technological units, tilling and planting up to 48 rows at a time with the touch of a button. The general public has little knowledge of the new ways in which farmers increase productivity, efficiency, and crop yields. Agriculture is not a common topic on the news or media, leaving the general public out of the loop on how their food is actually produced. Computers and smartphones play a major role in the everyday operations on a farm and drones have become a must have in the equipment line up due to time efficiency and less labor (Agriculture drone, 2019, para. 4).

Computers in agriculture serve in many ways and “modern technologies allow performing all operations on time” (Russian Federation, 2018, para. 3). Tractor data and equipment monitors show speed, gears, and temperatures, while also displaying seed output, hydraulic pressures or possible issues. Yield monitors tell the farmers just how many bushels per acre they are receiving out of a harvest at an exact second and GPS location in the field. It has also been a trend to add analog or high definition cameras to equipment so the operator can see all that is happening around him while allowing him to focus on what is ahead.

In today’s time where drones are entertaining to have at home, they have been converted into farm equipment by doing tasks that usually take manpower and time. This helps prevent an increase in greenhouse gasses with use of vehicles to check on irrigations, fields, and animals from afar. Moreover, the use of battery powered drones allows farmers to check “crop nutrient and input management, artificial intelligence for detecting weeds, pests and diseases, and improved accuracy of crop yield prediction” (AeroVironment advances, 2019, para. 2).

Plant growth has been dramatically changed through the years for farmers. In the past, farmers had to rely on mother nature solely for water; however, farmers can now control their own rain through irrigation. Innovations in chemical products have reduced the wear and tear on machines and enhanced crop yields. Using newly improved chemicals in fields can reduce weeds and rodents, which in term reduce the wear on combines and tillage equipment. A controversial topic is genetically modified organisms (GMO). GMO is where the genes in seeds have been modified to resist drought, parasites and other factors that may harm the growth of the plant. This works exceptionally well in grains for animal feed. It saves farmers mass amounts of money they would often spend in protecting their crops; whereas now, the plant can resist those factors themselves.

This paper will get to the roots of agriculture innovation, to both inform and teach the general public of the technology and concepts that have helped farmers keep up with the rising populations around the world. Agriculture is no longer a “Green Acres” farm, technology and innovations are as important as the food itself.

 

 

Review of Literature

Old fashioned concepts cannot sustain the growing populations around the world, due to more people and less land to grow crops. The need to get more out of our land is more important than ever before. With technology and advances in the farming industry, crop yields and productivity have become well known terms in every ag business. These are the top goals for every farm across America, doing more with the same as before.

There are many types of computers or computer-generated software that run the equipment in today’s society. In the agriculture industry, it is referred to as “precision agriculture”. Precision agriculture is “technology-driven information analysis of data acquired from the field and application of input as per the data analysis for increasing crop productivity” (“At 13+% CAGR”, 2017, para. 2). The most predominate systems are GPS receivers, variable-rate technology (VRT) and guidance/steering devices. These tie most of the planting and harvesting operation together. Through yield monitors using GPS location within the fields, farmers can tell exactly where they are getting the most yields, site specific limitations and enable the farmers to use different procedures throughout their production (“Agriculture conservation”, 2019, para. 9).

Yield monitors contribute to VRT. VRT is a system that allows all quantifiable items such as bushels per acre, seeds per acre, gallons of water and equipment speed to be altered by the computer system. When harvesting grain, yield monitors within combines can pin point in each field where the best growth and crop yields occur. All this information is either saved into the cloud, much like the cloud on a smartphone, or a jump drive like ones used for saving documents. The farmer can then place that information into the tractor for planting purposes. That information will be used to increase the productivity in that field using VRT, as well as the GPS location, to place each seed where it needs to be to increase yield. The autosteer is when the computer drives the tractor through the field to get perfectly straight rows and have more accuracy with the GPS receivers when planting. The planter will place more seeds in the high yield areas, resulting in more bushels being harvested per acre. That same information used to place each seed in high yield areas, can also be entered into the irrigation systems. The irrigation controls will allow more water to flow on the high yield areas to boost those seeds in their plant growth development. Because of the GPS location and monitoring, farmers have seen an increase in crop yields, due to better placement of each seed.

The self-propelled equipment, like tractors, sprayers and combines have their own monitors in them to give the farmer total control of his unit at all times. These monitors display tractors gears, engine rpm, and most importantly, possible issues with the unit. Since farming is a time-based operation with the seasons, a broken-down unit can dramatically affect a grower’s expenses and profits. That is why companies have introduced internet into their new machines. Case IH for example, has administered AFS Connect technology that can notify the dealership when a specific unit is having an issue without any human interaction. The dealership gets a notification online and a possible fix for the issue. AFS Connect allows for less down time for farmers and more time in the fields preparing for crops, which provides a higher profit at harvest. Jeremy Joseph (2020) has been the service manager at Hoober Inc. in Seaford, Delaware for 6 years. When asked how AFS Connect has helped both the customers and dealerships his response was:

AFS Connect has extremely helped farmers in the rush of the planting and harvest seasons. It speeds up our response time and in the near future will allow us, as the dealership, to directly download software through internet connection without leaving our shop. This allows for the farmers to stay as productive as possible and we can tend to bigger issues with our techs rather than small computer issues or faulty sensors (personal interview).

Camera monitors have become extremely popular in the agriculture industry. Camera monitors are widely used on harvesting equipment. Due to the large size of farming equipment, farmers cannot see everything that is happening around them. For both safety and loss of grain, cameras are a great fix. Moreover, combines have up to three cameras in various places throughout the machine with all displaying on one monitor for ease of use. These cameras mainly focus on the grain. The grain tank is important to know how full the bin is to not lose any grain from over filling. The rear of the machine is where the waste of the crops is spread. Cameras can display possible grain loss due to improper set up. Once this is made visible, via the monitor and cameras, the farmer can make the adjustments needed and reduce the loss of grain out the back of the machine.

For more pin point accuracy, cameras have been wired into precision agriculture systems to assist with planting. These cameras are placed near the ground. By doing so, the computer can pinpoint exactly where the unit is in the field with row identification to keep the unit on track. In a personal interview with Jeff Frase (2020), a precision ag specialist for 20 years, he defined how these cameras are used:

Camera systems in agriculture are not just for visionary reasons. These cameras tap into the autoguidence/steering and allow the computer to make perfectly straight rows by knowing exactly where the last row was placed and where it should be. This reduces crooked rows, and loss of field space. The farmers can maximize their fields by getting seeds in every inch of tillable soil as possible (personal interview).

The biggest down fall to the advances of computer usage and precision agriculture “is the high initial investment and the lack of technical awareness among farmers” (“At 13+% CAGR, 2017”, para. 2). To install these high-tech upgrades to equipment, it takes a certified technician with installment fees, not to mention the cost of the actual monitors and technology themselves. Justin Boyce, an equipment and precision ag salesman at Hoober Inc, suggested that these monitors and systems can cost around 12,000 to 15,000 dollars without installment (Boyce, 2020, personal interview). It also requires a knowledgeable user to understand the capabilities of each enhancement. These programs require more technological ability than the average smartphone and really need full understanding to get the most use out of them. However, there are training programs through dealerships, online classes and many ways to get in touch with the manufactures of these products themselves. The high cost of this technology is on the decline as well, due to lower prices of the major hardware components (Bucci et al., 2019, para. 3).

With the use of drones on the rise in every industry, it was inevitable that it would make its way to the ag community. The amount of manpower and time required in farming is one of the biggest restraints in the industry.  “In a situation where 100 labourers are needed for crop assessment, the drones can easily do that faster and better” (Agricultural drone, 2019, para. 4). Instead of paying employees, which includes additional vehicle and fuel costs to do simple tasks on the farm like crop monitoring, they can now fly their drone over fields and do assessments from the air.

Drones have five main functions they are being programmed to do in the ag industry: soil and field analysis, crop spraying, crop monitoring, irrigation monitoring and health assessments (Muraru et al., 2019, para 1). Drones have been programmed to produce 3-D images of fields. These images can be taken before and after planting to give the farmer an idea of the soil type and water drainage. After the planting is complete, the drones can then provide information on nitrogen levels within the soil. Nitrogen is one the most important elements in farming as it balances plants and promotes growth. Drones can spray fields up to five times faster than traditional sprayer machines with perfection. Through ultrasound echoes and lasers, the drone can determine its height at all times and adjust as needed to avoid collisions with the ground or field obstacles. Since this is basically a flying computer, it can also spray with accuracy, limiting the amount of harmful chemicals penetrating the ground. The most common use for drone is the crop monitoring. Checking crops can be a hassle because “today most cropland is on farms with at least 1,100 acres, and many farms are 5 and 10 times that size” (MacDonald et al, 2013, para. 1). High definition images produced by drones, give the farmers a real time representation of what is needed in their fields without the use of more than one man. Drones can also be equipped with thermal and spectral sensors to detect dry fields and where improvement is needed. Through this information, the farmer can then alter his irrigations to make up for the lack of water. Lastly, drones give health assessments of the plants. With the help of drones, crops have a better chance of survival with early detection of diseases in plants, “about 20 per cent of global crop production is lost to diseases” (“New crop disease”, 2018, para 5). Drones help solve this problem by using visual light and infrared light to track plant growth and health, giving the farmer an up-to-date analysis of his crops (Muraru et al., 2019, para. 1).

Drones may be taking the agriculture market by storm; however, they do have some downfalls. Drones are restricted to their battery usage. Some last as little as 20 minutes and when scouting fields, that results in little to no coverage when leaving from the home farm location. Drones are weather dependent. If there is a small issue on the farm that could be solved with the drone, the weather must be clear and little to no wind. Wind can blow the unit off course and curve the results for any tests or images. The last obstacle with drones is the Federal Aviation Administration laws toward farmers. Drones in agriculture is considered commercial use. Therefore, all users must have remote pilot certificate or hire someone to operate the drone who has one (Kipkeoi, 2019, para. 13). Although drones do have some obstacles in agriculture, they are a vital piece of the future of farming and more and more innovations in this field are being created every day.

Plant growth through the years has changed for the better due to the advancements in precision agriculture lowering input costs and increasing output of crop yields. The average savings per acre using precision agriculture methods and technology was 20 dollars in 2016 and the technology has only gotten better since then (Schimmelpfennig, 2016, para. 7). One of these advances is irrigation. Irrigation is not a new topic in the agriculture market; however, it has changed recently with the use of precision farming and smartphones.

Irrigation systems can now be programed with precision farming technology that is driven off data received in the previous harvest and plant. With the help of yield maps and seeds per acre, the irrigation systems can be altered to apply more or less water where needed. Using precision agriculture on irrigation systems helps save much needed water and electrical costs and on the other hand, it promotes better plant growth with the correct amount of water per each seed and soil type.

In addition to this, irrigation systems are also being taken over by the smartphone world. Every irrigation brand has their own rendering of apps, which control their units from a smartphone remotely with internet connection. These apps tell farmers how their systems are running, along with their efficiency. The most vital component of the apps is allowing farmers to know when the system is down or stuck in the field. At pivotal times of the year in plant growth cycles, water is the most important factor as well as the sun. Farmers now have the ability to keep an eye on their systems without leaving their homes. The apps give up-to-date analysis of the irrigation system at all times. Farmers have complete control over the system and the ability to engage it on and off based off weather, adjust the flow rate, and overall have more control with less manpower. Philip Dukes is a third-generation farmer in Delaware, with the largest production of lima beans and peas on the East Coast. Their farm has recently switched to smartphone-controlled irrigations systems. When asked about the upgrade he responded with: “This new technology has increased our crop yields by allowing timely fixes at crucial times of the year. 95% of our tilled land is irrigated, so smartphone-controlled systems have helped us greatly” (Dukes, personal communication, February 2020).

One of the most controversial topics in farming is the chemical application and the affects it has on the environment. These tactics are looked upon harshly, however, they are helping farmers complete their duties with less input costs and have a mass number of technological advances in them. Chemicals diminish unwanted weeds and pests while increasing yields with better overall quality at harvest. “Chemical crop protection performs a crucial role in ensuring sufficient food and resource supplies to an ever-increasing world population” (Alla & Kantevari, 2019, para. 4). Chemicals used in agriculture can be split into three main categories; herbicide, insecticide and fungicide.

Herbicides are used to kill weeds. In a field that is meant to produce grain, weeds will take away much needed nutrients from the crops themselves. When plants have fewer nutrients, they in term, will have lower yields when harvested. The application of this chemical used to kill off unwanted plants is quite the technological feat. An applicator machine, like a sprayer, will apply the herbicide on a field that already has short sprouts of both the desired plant and the weed. The chemicals are made specifically to kill off the weeds and not affect the desired plants at all. The weeds then die off, giving the left-over plants all the nutrients, they need from the soil without competition. The downfall to these herbicides is chemical runoff. Where the left-over chemicals run off the fields into the water ways. However, through new technology with precision farming, this is being diminished by precise application with less product waste.

Insecticides are used to kill insects that live in the plants and also use them as their main food source. Most insecticides are nerve toxins that provide rapid control and target the organ of choice inside insects. Killing insects not only protects the crops and allows them to grow without hindrance, it also minimizes diseases that are pest spread. Although there are many insecticides created to protect plants, insects are living creatures and can adapt to change. Recently in citrus producing plants, there has been a rise in a disease called greening. The Asian citrus psyllid is the reason this disease is dramatically impacting the citrus market in Florida, and there is no cure or way to stop this bug. In 2018, Florida farmers saw the lowest crop yields that state has seen in up to 75 years due to this insect spread disease (Lush, 2018, para. 9). So even as incredible as these advances in chemical application are, they are not perfect and cannot fix every issue for farmers.

Fungicides are used to kill off plant borne diseases. Diseases in plants can come from many factors like wet climate, drought, and as mentioned previously, insects. Plants are much like humans, as both have immune systems but precautionary measures can be taken to avoid illness. Fungicides work through the inside core of the plant to fight off disease that may be prevalent. Although these chemicals help plant growth and increase yields, some reports show a negative effect on humans. Therefore, these fungicides are strictly monitored and regulated to ensure safety to those consuming such plants.

The last advancement in plant growth is the scientific accomplishment of the GMO seeds. These seeds are specifically modified to resist all the factors that the above chemicals are needed for. These seeds grow and fight by themselves, giving farmers the upper hand against nature. The end result is higher yields with less farmer input. The advantages of GMO are quite compelling. According to a study based on GMO effects, “GMO can reduce pesticide-related environmental footprint by 18.4% and has been shown to decrease usage of chemical pesticides by 37%” (Prem, 2019, para. 8). By using GMO to grow plants, the effect of harmful chemicals can be limited and insect diseases can be potentially wiped out. The insect’s main food source will be able to defend against the bugs and in tern, it will kill off the insects without the use of any sprays that could pollute other resources due to starvation. The largest advantage of GMO is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by needing less machines, which equals the removal of an estimated “27 billion kg of CO2 from the atmosphere” (Prem, 2019, para 8). With all these advantages to GMO farming, this would seem like the best route. However, there are many skeptics that feel GMO are related to cancer formation and also could inhibit new food allergies. These counters are not proven yet; however, they are an item that are taken into account when GMO is used. GMO are primarily used for animal consumption and are strictly regulated to see if there are any negative affects on those consuming and pollenating the plants.

Innovations in agriculture has come a long way since the beginning. With the production of the tractor to speed up planting and increase field space, to now having tractors and drones that drive themselves, planting seeds that have the ability to fight off diseases by themselves. The amount of technology in farming will blow the mind of the average consumer. “With more than two generations removed from the farm, a huge disconnect has been created between citizens and agriculture as we know it” (Malloy, 2016, para. 1). An increase in public knowledge will give agriculture a whole new outlook by the general public and maybe open more career opportunities for those who originally viewed agriculture careers as just “a farmer on a tractor”.

Expectations

Conclusions

The innovations in agriculture over the years has tremendously increased productivity, efficiency and yields for farmers around the world. Through the use of computers and monitors, drones and advances in plant growth development, farmers are doing more with what they have and getting equipped to feed the growing populations around the world. The lack of ag literacy in the public, may not give farmers the credit they deserve. The lack may not give the industry the recognition that it deserves through its many job opportunities either, not just in blue collar work but with scientists, software designers and engineers. The ag industry has come a long way since its roots with mule and plow and the future can only hold more opportunities for innovation. With the innovations to come, the world could see farming grow into something exciting.

The purpose of this survey is to discover what farmers want improved with the innovations in agriculture. Since they are directly using the products and technology, they will have the best outlook on how to fix issues and create better technology for the future. The results may show that farmers do indeed think these innovations are worth having on the farm, increase their profits and ease of work. Some will not see the need for these innovations as they may not have the full potential of technology in their grasps. Most trends will show that the biggest hindrance to the technology is learning the devices and all it is capable of accomplishing. By reviewing this survey, companies will know where they need improvement and where a niche may be for new possible innovations.

Recommendations

1. The general public should increase their ag literacy.

The ag literacy of the public is what generally determines the respect for the industry. If the public continues to not fully understand the innovations, technology and opportunities inside agriculture, they may never comprehend what the industry entails. The agriculture industry is so much more than a man and a tractor. It is feeding nations, tractors that drive themselves, drones that decrease manpower, and scientific technology that helps plants protect themselves. Through ag literacy, the public will understand how their food is grown and what all actually goes into it. The public may then appreciate the industry, give respect to the farming occupation and possibly find a new career in the ag economy.

1. Farmers should use all the innovations available to better their profits and increase yields.

Not all farmers use precision agriculture technology on their farms. They may feel they do not own enough acres or the up-front expense is too high for the possible outcomes. However, if they were to look at the possibilities made available by these innovations, they can definitely find a need for it. It is all about productivity and efficiency, doing more with the same. So, whether it’s 500 acres or 5000 acres, increasing yields can be done across the board. With the rise of human population and the decrease of land, every grain counts.