Artificial intelligence is being increasingly adopted by American farmers. The technology is both necessary and highly developed.
A farmer in the American Midwest waves his smartphone at one of his soybean plants while standing in a verdant field. After taking a picture of a pest crawling on a leaf, he allows an AI-powered computer identify the type of bug and determine whether it should be taken seriously. Although this kind of technology may seem innovative, it is essential.
The lack of labor in the agricultural sector is endangering the industry’s ability to remain profitable and produce enough food. The world’s food systems cannot continue to be supported by the current number of hands.The US, which produces the third-largest agricultural output after China and India, is most affected by this issue.
The ageing of farmers is one of the primary problems. Many people are unable of putting in the long hours of physical labor required to manage a farm. Even though many of these businesses have been family-owned for many years, younger generations are choosing to work in less labor-intensive but higher-paying fields rather than taking over as leaders as they once did. These tendencies are also observed among the hired laborers, who are primarily immigrants and comprise the remainder of the agricultural workforce.
According to Emily Buckman, director of political affairs for the trade group for the agricultural business, the American Farm Bureau Federation, “labor is the number one concern.” “A farmer today is 60 years old on average. Growing up, Buckman lived on a farm in Kentucky where her father, who is 70 years old, continued to tend the land with the help of her brother.
Some US farmers are looking to emerging robotics and AI solutions to help solve the problem, especially because agricultural yields are declining and the worker pool is getting fewer and more expensive. “We think about solutions to solving that problem, and we do think that advances in technology could help ease some of the labour load,” Buckman states.
The application of artificial intelligence in agriculture is not entirely new; for example, auto-steering guidance systems for row crops like corn have been in use for 20 years. However, the adoption of AI has been rapid in recent years; as of late 2021, 87% of US agricultural enterprises were estimated to be utilizing AI in some capacity. The federal government is also accelerating the agricultural sector’s transition to technology by offering financial incentives to hasten AI development and implementation across the nation.
The rest of the globe may be significantly impacted if the almost two million American farmers that are pushing for AI adoption are successful. This is particularly true as the world’s population rises and climate change jeopardizes the agricultural ecosystems of some of the world’s greatest producers, including the United States, which exported goods worth over $100 billion (£78.9 billion) to China, Mexico, Canada, and Europe in the previous year alone.
According to Buckman, the industry wants to create and implement new technologies on a large scale that is accessible and inexpensive “so that farmers can feed the world.” By 2050, there will be two billion more people on the planet than there are now, which implies that 70% more food will need to be produced. Cutting-edge technology will enable us to achieve it.”
The agriculture sector is under a lot of pressure to come up with answers quickly. These operations already have to accomplish more with less due to the labor scarcity in the US. However, the tipping point is the urgency of the climate catastrophe. Crop yields are being negatively impacted by unpredictable weather, which has made it harder to forecast growing conditions. Put differently, warmer temperatures may result in a shortage of food earlier than anticipated.
“Climate change is expected to cause significant losses in crop yields,” states Patrick Schnable, a distinguished professor at Iowa State University and the director of the Plant Sciences Institute. “A 10% or 20% reduction in corn yields would be catastrophic,” according to him. Thus, the query is: “Is it possible to use AI to improve resilience?”
The AI Institute for Resilient Agriculture is at Iowa State. It is funded by the USDA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) and collaborates with partner universities nationwide to develop AI-driven tools and technologies.
“We are examining two overarching issues,” Schnable explains. “One is sustainability identification – how do you design new activities that are related to agriculture and resilient to climate change,” he continues. “The second question is how farmers can make more money while using fewer resources, energy, pesticides, and water by utilizing AI, robots, and sensing instruments.
The head of the AI Institute for Resilient Agriculture and an Iowa State University mechanical engineering professor, Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, states that “there’s a great deal of promise, and some of it’s already being implemented” when it comes to addressing those two objectives.
According to Buckman, the most common AI technologies available now are GPS tools and drones. However, there are a ton of other options as well, such self-driving tractors and combines, as well as high-quality sensors on those vehicles, which can assist farmers in determining which portions of their crops require more or less care.
Additionally, robots are capable of performing automated sorting jobs that previously required human vision. For example, some farms are using AI technology to sift potatoes and search for particular flaws. Others are planting seeds and pulling weeds from fields with AI-enhanced cultivators, which can essentially replace dozens of human laborers.
A broader approach known as “precision agriculture” includes using AI to increase crop yields while using less resources. The plan is for farmers to precisely target problematic regions by utilizing cutting-edge technologies, such as drones that can measure a field’s water or pesticide levels.
“Precision agriculture helps reduce water waste, be more efficient and do more with less,” states Buckman. “US agriculture would’ve needed 100 million more acres 30 years ago to match today’s production levels,” she claims. The adoption of precision agriculture techniques in conjunction with AI and other technologies is primarily responsible for the output gains.
Major companies in the global agriculture space have pioneered and implemented many of these improvements at scale. One of them is John Deere, a company established in Illinois that creates and produces tractors and other technological gear for use in agricultural activities all over the world.
Director of new technologies at John Deere’s Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG), Sarah Schinckel, states, “Our goal with AI and technology is to help farmers do their jobs better.” Farming is “changing, it’s already here, and farmers are adopting it,” according to AI technologies. “We see a future where more and more farmers are using this technology.”