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Fully automated processes on farms have benefited the industry during Covid 19
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Tuesday, 27 July, 2021, 12 : 00 PM [IST]
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Naman Bhurani
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The Covid-19 pandemic is a worldwide health emergency that is already wreaking havoc on the global economy, both directly and indirectly as a result of the disease's spread. The food and agricultural industries are also feeling the effects.
While food supplies have held up well so far, the precautions put in place to prevent the virus' spread are beginning to impair the delivery of agro-food items to markets and consumers, both inside and across borders, in many nations. The sector's composition, as well as the amount of demand for particular goods, is changing dramatically.
Farm automation (also known as smart farming), is a set of technological advances used in conventional farming to increase the efficiency and quality of the food production process. Currently, modern agricultural technology may be an important element of a farmer's day-to-day operations.
Farm automation technology handles key challenges such as population growth, labour constraints on farms, and shifting consumer tastes. The advantages of automating conventional agricultural operations are enormous.
Organic and sustainably produced items are becoming more popular among consumers. Produce reaches consumers faster, fresher, and more sustainably thanks to automation technologies. Increased productivity through automation improves output and rate of production, which lowers consumer costs.
Labour accounts for more than half of the cost of running a farm, and 55 percent of farmers believe labour shortages are a problem. As a result, 31% of farmers are switching to less labour-intensive crops. Harvest robots, on the other hand, have enormous promise. Routine operations may be automated using robots technology, lowering labour costs and reducing the amount of personnel required in the agriculture business, which is now experiencing a labour crisis.
Farm automation methods can increase the profitability of agriculture while at the same time decreasing the environmental impact of farming. Apart from decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, on-site application software can minimise the quantity of pesticides and fertilisers required to produce.
However, agricultural automation problems need to be addressed. A significant barrier to entry for farmers, especially in underdeveloped nations, are the expense of adopting robotic technologies. For example, robot planters need to carry large- weight water or pesticides; hardware need to be constructed differently, resulting in increased expenses to make it larger.
There are also substantial expenditures to rectify technical difficulties and equipment breakdowns for such specialist equipment. Farmers will have to combine their expertise and experience with these new technologies in order to properly exploit agricultural automation.
We are just in the early phases of agricultural automation, but agriculture will be transformed. By advances in technology, production systems and software, it offers a route towards sustainable and effective agriculture. The technology of automation is becoming more advanced each year, and what was new just a few years ago is soon going to become common and affordable. The human element will be an important component of farm management, but completely self-sufficient cars and agricultural equipment will come.
Some years ago, drones were just the imagination of several courageous developers - seeing where we now are. The smart farms are created by robots and drones. They communicate information, give signals and assist farming to take 10 steps to feed billions.
However, every IT solution contains software tools that assist the company, regardless of how complicated they are. To make the proper choice regarding the plants in the field, each drone or autonomous tractor need a brain.
(The author is founder of Vediko)
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