Positive Impact Of AgTech

As an experienced partner of major players in the farming industries, CMG has a lot of opportunities to talk with people of varying backgrounds about how they perceive healthy and safe food. More often than not, the terms „healthy food“ and „technology“ didn’t fall into the same sentences. The romantic idea of small farms producing fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs, and meat in a traditional (organic) way is the thing that first pops into mind when thinking „healthy“. But can that approach be a solution to the numerous problems that humanity is facing today? 

Agriculture has thus evolved to provide large quantities of food for ever-growing needs, and supply chains have followed suit. 

If we think about how most people live today, we quickly realize that urbanization has taken its toll. We can’t expect that New York or Dubai citizens would be able to have a garden to grow food for their households, or that small farms could ever produce enough food to feed their growing cities’ population. Agriculture has thus evolved to provide large quantities of food for our ever-growing needs, and supply chains have followed suit. Having the ability to access any type of food, from anywhere in the world, any time of the year is pretty much the norm now. 

But this does come with a price, as we are becoming acutely aware. Not only the high purchase price of the exotic fruit that came from across the globe but also the price that climate change, soil erosion, and biodiversity loss will inflict on us. If you combine that with the ever-growing world population, we are in quite a predicament. Do we have the brains and the tools to fight it? That is where AgTech comes in, the potential is immense and provides us with a sense of excitement and hope that we can still reverse the damage! 

Innovative solutions: 

Some greenhouses and vertical farming facilities use recycled water and use rain or humidity from the air to create water, thus saving this valuable resource. 

Drones equipped with cameras and sensors combined with artificial intelligence and machine learning monitor the state of some crops. They identify pests or diseases in the early stages and notify the farmer in real time, providing the farmer with the knowledge to prevent problems from getting worse or spreading. 

Solar-powered robots can conduct normally manual activities. They save on fuel and manpower and prevent excessive usage of chemicals when they aren’t needed. Solar-powered robots can also weed and reduce herbicide usage. 

IoT devices can monitor a plant’s water demand and provide inputs to apply the proper irrigation, thus only using water when it’s needed. Likewise, sensors on IoT devices can monitor light, temperature, soil moisture, and many other key factors for plant health. 

Big data, combining various parameters collected from the fields and geographic information systems, provide agricultural protocols that help protect the soil, enhance biodiversity, and increase food security.