By: Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer, Trend
Imagine a world in which each plant or animal raised for food received individual attention by robotic farmers who supply the exact amount of nutrients needed at just the right stage of growth. A farm where microdoses of pesticides are applied only on the specific insect or weed or disease posing a problem. Farmers who are able to choose seeds after tapping a worldwide database on how a plant performs in an environment just like their own.
With the need to feed a global population that the United Nations projects will hit 9.6 billion by 2050, there is some urgency to perfecting those kinds of methods. Fortunately, with the developing sciences behind precision agriculture, that world is not far off. Using big data and new technology, the potential exists to transform farming as we know it today, increasing food, feed, fiber, and fuel production while simultaneously reducing the pollution and other environmental footprints of agriculture. What’s more, precision agriculture will transform the comparative advantage of many geographic regions and force a reorganization of farm production…