What are the 3 most popular applications of AI in agriculture?
AI is taking on a growing role in agriculture. Due to climate change, labour shortages and increased food demand, operators are looking for ways to increase yield and decrease costs. So, what are the 3 most popular applications of AI in agriculture? Let’s look at precision farming, crop and soil monitoring and autonomous farming today.
Precision farming
Precision farming is all about using AI to optimise crop yields through data-driven decision-making. We help clients do this with tools like drones, satellite imagery and AI models to monitor crop health and guide planting or harvesting. When you use AI for precision farming, it reduces waste (and that’s great for the planet). You can also tailor the water, fertiliser and pesticides you use better, all while increasing productivity for every square meter of land. Lastly, precision farming with AI helps you get granular even over very large holdings.
Crop and soil monitoring
Operators have been using sensors to gather and analyse data about crops and soil health for many, many years now. IoT devices, computer vision technology and machine learning are all fairly commonplace, but what is new is using AI to make decisions and recommendations based on that data. It’s good for early disease detection, better soil management and fertilisation strategies that take into account a wider number of variables. We have explained here that “Real-time monitoring with applied sensor intelligence allows farmers to make timely, effective decisions to safeguard factors such as crop and animal health, while reducing inputs and costs.” AI just lets you do this at scale and with better accuracy.
Autonomous farming
Lastly, one of the most popular applications of AI in agriculture recently has been AI-controlled environments, robots and vehicles. First, you’ve got the machines used for planting, harvesting and weeding. They can now be operated largely without human intervention, only oversight. Then you’ve got complete environments too. These are precision operations that allow you to grow with minimal human supervision. AI enables farmers to command and control growing environments automatically using applied artificial intelligence. They’re able to set optimal ranges for their environment remotely. Those are then maintained constantly through sensor network analytics and data transfer via machine learning. Recommendations can be reviewed and accepted with no physical intervention on the grower’s part for a truly 21st-century setup.
Why is agricultural AI growing in popularity?
Precision farming, crop and soil monitoring and autonomous farming are just some of the more popular innovation routes, however, AI will continue shaping agriculture as new technologies are tried and adopted. At Agxio, we’re always looking at what’s next and rolling out proven tech while investing in R&D for the future. Would you like to see how we’ve supported traditional farming with our sensor analytics platform Mercury, drone mapping tool Zeus, or Centaur command centre? Why not look through our case studies or get in touch today for insight into your own agriculture goals and challenges? We’d love to help you take advantage of these 3 most popular applications of AI in agriculture.