How Agriculture incorporates Industrial Technology and Application?
The villages account for about 40% of the Indian population, having abundant resources and fertile soil thus making agriculture a main source of income for them. Agriculture is the primary occupation of the people in India.
Though it is the primary occupation in India, it is gradually declining and people are moving out from the villages into the cities in search of other ways to earn their livelihood. One of the main reasons for its decline is scarcity of rAInfall which leads to less yield, hence making it difficult for them to sustainn their livelihood.
Technology that changes efficiency in Agriculture.
For growing crops, one needs ample water along with fertile soil but with the present problem of climate change, there has been lesser rainfall making it difficult for the farmers to produce ample harvest. Due to this problem, the farmers are not able to grow crops in the given season which affects their livelihood to a large extent.
Scarcity of rainfall is just one of the reasons for the gradual decline of the agriculture sector. Now that less water is available for growing crops, what the farmer needs is smart farming methods so that he is able to use whatever resource he has in an efficient way.
This goal can be achieved by incorporating industrial technologies in agriculture. Below are some of the industrial technologies that if put to use in agriculture could yield amazing results.
DRONE TECHNOLOGY
Though the term ‘Drone’ may not be new to the urban masses, for rural India it is still something new. The drone can prove to be a great help to our farmers in monitoring crop growth, field planning and keeping a surveillance on pests or wild animals that could destroy their crops. The drones can even be used to spray fertilizers on the field.
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The Army and the Police have been using drones for a long time for surveillance, and though this technology is still new for the farmers in India, in the coming years drones will be used to optimize agricultural operations in India.
INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT)
The ‘Internet of Things’ is a concept that describes the idea of everyday physical items being connected to the internet. In agriculture, it refers to the use of robots, drones and sensors all having different tasks but a common objective of assisting in manual work from sowing of seeds, spraying of fertilizers, monitoring of farms and the harvest of crops.
The uses of IoT in agriculture and farming include collecting data on rainfall, soil quality, pest infestation, temperature and wind speed. These data can be used further along with Artificial intelligence (AI) machines to predict the best time for sowing seeds as well as harvesting. This would help in maximizing the produce and eliminating wastage of resources.
PRECISION AGRICULTURE
One of the ways to increase agricultural yield is by using the approach of precision agriculture. It refers to the approach of using resources with precision, in precise amounts unlike the traditional methods of cultivation such as agroforestry, intercropping, crop rotation etc.
Natural farming vs factory farming.
There are a number of benefits of using the precision agriculture approach :
- It prevents soil degradation.
- It reduces chemical application in crop production.
- Efficient use of resources like water.
- It helps in reducing the cost of production.
These are some great benefits of using the precision agriculture method but due to the lack of knowledge, most of the farmers in India still practice the traditional techniques of cultivation. The farmers need to be educated about the modern techniques of cultivation for increasing the yield, along with reducing the production costs.
DATA ANALYTICS
Data analytics remains a vital tool in every industry. Without data analytics, it is nearly impossible to understand the trends in demand of a product, or a crop in case of the agriculture sector.
With the help of data analytics in agriculture, we can monitor yields, calculate fertilizer demands with precision, apply cost saving strategies and analyze these data to discover trends and patterns that will facilitate farmers in making smart decisions, increasing the produce with minimal usage of resources, hence cutting down on production costs.
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Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy, with over 40% of the country’s workforce employed under the agriculture sector. Hence this becomes a necessity for the farmers to use these modern technologies to help boost the agricultural sector.
CROP MANAGEMENT
Using machine learning and computer algorithms to analyze weather data and soil quality, today’s farmers can predict accurately the timings for harvest and sowing.
WARNING SYSTEMS
One of the biggest risk factors in the modern agricultural sector is the external variables which cannot be controlled. Machine learning and algorithmic tools are designed in such a way that agriculturalists can be warned beforehand about such natural calamities. For example weather patterns, pest infestation etc.
NANOTECHNOLOGY
Nanotechnology is the understanding and control of the matter, at dimensions between approximately 1 and 100 nanometres. A nanometer is one billionth of a metre which is only visible under a high powered telescope. The nanoparticles in industrial scale are used in a broad spectrum of applications within a diverse range of industries.
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Nanotechnology is the new age technology that has grabbed the attention of the millennials for its diversity in terms of use like in pharma, agriculture and surgery. They can be employed in protection of plants from pests and other insects by synthesis of nanomaterial based pesticides and insecticides.
It is well recognized that excessive use of fertilizers can prove to be calamitous for the atmosphere, as it releases toxins in the soil which travels into the groundwater levels. Degraded ecosystems have become a serious threat towards the biosphere of the planet.
With the advancement in technology in the last few years, there has been a constant need to ramp up the agricultural sector. The world population has been going up rapidly and by the year 2050, it is expected to reach 9.9 billion.
Also, there are a number of problems in agriculture that would be a hindrance in providing for such a massive population. With more and more people giving up agriculture, there will be an acute shortage of workforce in this industry.
This is where Artificial intelligence or AI would come to the rescue. AI robotic machines would be capable of doing manual work more efficiently and with precision, thus reducing human intervention and cutting down on costs.
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In addition to tackling the labor challenge, AI could also help in weather forecasts and predicting the best time to sow and harvest. In agriculture, timely information is of utmost importance as delay in taking the right steps could adversely affect the yield and it could amount to losses.
The AI could timely predict the precise time for sowing the seeds and harvesting of crops using the given data and weather forecast, hence helping the farmers to obtain maximum yield.
CONCLUSION
In short, agriculture is the most important sector in India which has a large growth prospect in the coming future. To make it possible for this sector to show significant growth in the future and to make our farmer’s life a little easier with maximizing yields, the technologies discussed above are the need of the hour.
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Employing these technologies would not only maximize the yield but also help in reducing the production cost. It would also cut down on the consumption of resources like water and fertilizers. Innovation in technology is necessary for development, be it in any sector or development of a nation as a whole.
We need to ramp up agricultural technology from time to time in order to be at par with the technologies used in agriculture at world⁶ levels. This is one of the ways for India to be at the forefront of agriculturally developed nations of the world.
