A huge crowd of people moves around in the city. Land used for production shrinks.
The world’s population continues to grow.
A street view with people walking and roads with cars in motion is shown.
Labor shortages are happening in agriculture. Our climate continues to change, and warm.
A person, dressed in classic farmer attire with a checkered shirt, blue overalls, gumboots, and a yellow cap, walks through a green crop field.
These challenges demand solutions to food, environmental, and agricultural issues that are very different from those in the past.
Someone stands in a vast barley crop, holding and using a tablet in the field.
Agriculture must address reduced resources and care of the environment, while still producing abundant food. How? One way is through using emerging technology.
A tractor with extensions moves across barren land, kicking up dust. Blue and green mountains serve as the backdrop.
An example is the use of GPS satellite technology to guide fertilizer systems to within an inch of accuracy in a hundred-acre field.
A yellow and green machine with a cord appears, labeled "StarFire 6000."
These systems apply fertilizer to an exact location, so it is not wasted and little to no fertilizer contaminates the environment.
A person in a moving tractor releases their hands from the steering as the tractor moves through the field.
Many types of agricultural equipment, such as harvesters and sprayers can use auto steer systems which use GPS receivers to avoid gaps or overlap in rows.
A tractor moves forward in a field with extensions at the back.
Growers drive to the field, set the GPS in the tractor, and then let technology deliver seed, fertilizer, and pesticides in exact dosages.
A person in a black t-shirt and blue denim jeans sits on one knee in a large field with sprouts, holding and looking at a tablet.
Companies use satellite and atmospheric data to provide weather predictions to help make decisions about crop production.
A person looks at a photo of a bug in a laptop while holding a dead bug.
These same companies can use this technology to build management models that include pest control and fertilizing guidance for an individual field.
A woman wearing a cap uses a controller to operate a drone on a vast field. The camera zooms out from the controller to reveal the full image.
Drone technology enables growers to scout the entire field. Drones capture various kinds of imagery to assess pest infestations, drought stress, and fertilizer needs of the crop. Farmers can then specifically address the needs of the crop with high degrees of accuracy.
A drone flies over a brown crop field, showering liquid as a person operates it with a controller.
Drones can also be used to apply pesticides in a field from above the crop canopy. This reduces pesticide introduced to the environment, soil compaction, and farm labor.
Several strawberry plants arranged on long ridges in an indoor farm appear. The strawberries come in mixed colors—red, yellow, and green.
In the horticulture industry, computers on hydroponic farms monitor the health of crops keeping tabs on temperature, humidity, and nutrient levels to ensure a good yield.
Rows of small green leafy plants in an indoor farm are displayed. The camera moves from right to left, showing more rows and stopping at large leafy plants.
Computer systems can send alarms, but can also automate the greenhouse, such as controlling vents, lighting, and irrigation.
A mechanical arm in a workshop moves over a rotating head of another machine, wrapping plastic horizontally. Strings of plastic are attached to the back of the mechanical arm.
In the field of environmental science, technology has been developed that can take carbon emissions and turn them into plastic. Old ways of producing plastics require a large amount of fossil fuels combined with heat, which is not efficient. This new technology reduces fossil fuel consumption and captures and reuses atmospheric carbon.
A woman in a blue PPE suit inside a barn tends to small piglets, using a tablet to monitor their health.
Another advancement in agricultural technology is livestock monitoring. Livestock monitoring is the ability to monitor individual animals to see how they are doing. To improve animal health, farmers can observe animals, watching patterns to help a livestock owner discover when an animal may be ill or injured.
A person in a red shirt checks on plants in a farm while holding a tablet. The camera moves up to show the vast field.
Agriculture is an industry that has always innovated. Growers and agricultural scientists will continue to develop means of producing food and fiber to meet the needs of our growing planet and changing climate, all while sustaining our environmental resources.