Application of AI in Agriculture | Challenges and Benefits

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been noticeable in agriculture recently. To increase its profit, the agricultural sector faces many difficulties. Agricultural industries in the past few years have started to adopt AI techniques. These techniques are replacing traditional farming methods very quickly. Using these techniques, farmers gain more profit without investing much resources and manpower. The main reason is their flexibility, high performance, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness. In this blog, we review the application of AI.

Technology has been used in the agricultural industry throughout human history. It increases the growth efficiency (in terms of both cultivation and profit). From improved plows to irrigation, tractors to modern AI, it continues with time since the invention of farming. In the past few years, the rise of technology in the field of agriculture has touched new heights. Agriculture is a crucial part of the economic sector. The demand for food is increasing with the increase in population day by day around the whole world. But the traditional farming methods are not fulfilling these demands. That’s when AI emerges as the best solution. It offers automated farming methods that increase productivity with the most cost-efficient techniques

As technology is advancing and achieving new heights every day. It is safe to say that the role of artificial intelligence in agriculture will have a greater impact in the upcoming years. In this blog, we will discuss how AI is making an impact on farmers. How AI methods improve cultivation and profit with less human labor:

1. What is AI in agriculture?
2. How is AI making its impact?
3. What is the role of AI?
4. How AI provides benefits in agriculture?
5. Some examples of AI in agriculture.

What is the Application of AI in Agriculture?

Many industries are transformed by AI and agriculture is no exception. With the traditional farming methods, farmers are facing many problems. But since AI is integrated with farming techniques it makes them more efficient, accessible, and sustainable. Artificial intelligence has revolutionized the whole farming process over the horizon. Artificial intelligence benefits agriculture by improving the whole farming process.

AI technologies are helping farmers by offering new farming equipment and applications, so it is crucial to understand the latest trends in AI. It can make the farming process a lot easier with an increase in profit. With AI support, farmers can now yield healthier crops, harmful pests can be controlled, the quality of soil is monitored, and it offers much more.

How AI Tackles the Challenges of Traditional farming methods?

The agriculture industry is one of the oldest industries since the existence of mankind. Throughout this time there were many different challenges that were faced and resolved over the years. But there are still a number of challenges that need to be resolved.

Here is how to use AI in agriculture to resolve these problems.

1. Cost Savings

The first need of every farmer is to grow more crops with less investment of money and resources. AI combines soil management techniques, variable rate technology, and effective data management techniques. This allows a farmer to maximize their profit with the least amount of investment.

2. Shortage of labor

The labor shortage was always a big problem in agriculture because of all the hard work to be done on the farm field. To tackle these issues AI offers automation that can be implemented in the following techniques:

1. Irrigation
2. Fertilization
3. Driverless tractors
4. Medicine spray
5. Harvesting crops
6. Robotic Scarecrows

When compared to the working of humans, these tools turn out to be faster, stronger, and more accurate.

3. Decision-Making

AI software & applications have stored data & real-time data. Through this data, it can predict future outcomes related to weather, soil, crops, and many other factors that help you to make decisions based on it. Farmers can use these predictive decisions to minimize their risk of crop failures.

What is the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Agriculture?

AI has made such a huge impact on the agriculture industry that it is allowing farmers to boost crop production, automating manual tasks. In fact, by the year 2026, the growth of the market is expected for overall spending on AI is expected to grow from $1 billion to $4 billion. AI can bring so many benefits to the agricultural industry, and the people who work in it.

The best thing about the use of AI in agriculture is it doesn't replace human farmers. Artificial intelligence applications are revolutionizing various industries, from Agriculture to finance. Artificial intelligence in the finance sector has revolutionized decision-making and risk assessment. In fact, it improves the procedures and employment. The agricultural industry can now operate its farming activities more effectively thanks to AI technologies. AI can help crop managers do a better job of managing their crops. It has the potential to help farmers overcome problems like climate change, pest and weed infestations, and low yields.

What are the Advantages of Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture?

The outdated methods and techniques are being replaced by artificial intelligence in the agricultural sector. The agricultural sector is adapting AI by implementing the latest technologies in the fields.

1. Soil Monitoring

The basic need of farming is “Soil”. Soil is the most essential ingredient for the growth of crops. It is very important to detect soil frequently and look out for defects to prevent net yield loss. The traditional methods are not effective and don’t deliver the desired results. But now these defects are analyzed by the AI software. AI equipment takes a pinch of soil samples for analysis. Different machines are used in labs to run tests on samples.

2. Automated Irrigation

Irrigation is a must-do process in farming, as in this process plants and crops get watered. The water requirements of every crop are different, so it should be pre-planned. If any crop gets excessive or less adequate water compared to the requirement, then it takes no time to harm your crop.AI can resolve this too by collecting HD aerial images of crops and then analyzing the data related to the images. Through this analysis, it gains information on adequate water requirements.

3. Boosted Productivity

AI helps in increasing the productivity of crops and plants, by automating farming operations. Product management improves the net output from the field. AI-developed machines assist farmers in targeting irrigation, weed control, and crop management. It helps in improving the efficiency of the field.

4. Weeding Process

Weeds are wild plants that grow alongside the main food crop in the field. By stealing sunlight and nutrients from the main crop, weeds make them vulnerable. Due to this, the main crops become more targeted for pests attack. In traditional methods, it takes manpower to remove these weeds. But after the implementation of AI. Farmers deploy robots and machines that consist of laser light to remove weeds.

5. Automated Harvesting

Traditional harvesting methods involve manual labor. Software using AI is created for this purpose. It uses a camera to identify the harvesting products (fruits & vegetables). After the analysis of products, the machine supervises the AI to pick them and collect those products.

6. Plant Health Monitoring

Another advantage of AI is that it can identify the conditions of plants and crops. For this, an application helps in the detection of health problems. After analyzing them with the use of the internet, they can also find the solution for them. It uses the technique of image recognition to analyze the condition of a crop or plant from the software’s data.

The software further provides the condition of plants with its cure by using the application of remote sensing in agriculture.

7. Reduce Unwanted Pesticides

AI studies the characteristics of the field and can trace even a small change in the farm field. It analyzes the distinct requirements of weedicides and pesticides per field. AI software identifies pest attacks and plant health problems. The improved soil fertility maintenance reduces the use of pesticides and herbicides in the field. AI software is connected with automated robots and drones. These automated machines help in spraying pesticides and weedicides in the field. Spraying chemicals by drones makes the process more effective but also reduces the load on manpower.

What are the Examples of Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture?

Farming is becoming more advanced with the help of AI. Why artificial intelligence is important can be understood by its ability to revolutionize industries. A lot of progress has been made already, But there is still much left to do. AI provided many beneficial machines and software to the agricultural industry. Below we have mentioned some of the most trending examples:

1. Precision agriculture
2. Managing Risks
3. Greater efficiency and effectiveness
4. Early detection of pests and weeds
5. Research and Development
6. Analyzing market demand
7. Faster identification of research data
8. Weather forecasting

Conclusion

AI-Based agriculture is not only helping farmers to learn agricultural automation. It also makes them realize how to modify their traditional farming methods to obtain maximum yields and higher quality with less resource usage. The production of drones, automated robots, and self-driving tractors has achieved technological advances and will advance more in the future, and more useful software will be created for this field. These innovations will solve the world’s food production problems caused by the growth in population.

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