With technology intrinsically woven throughout all aspects of crop production, when asked to pinpoint the greatest opportunity for growth, Agri-TechE’s Dr Belinda Clarke believes it’s artificial intelligence (AI).
“We’re just beginning to harness this as an industry and increase our understanding of how it can be used, for example, around the creation of digital twins.
“I’m not convinced AI will completely replace aspects of agriculture, more that it’ll supercharge and enhance. An example being pinpointing new molecules for crop protection or even biostimulants – AI can have a positive role in engineering biology,” she says.
“But with this comes the requirement that the data used to train the algorithms be appropriate and relevant – which is both exciting and challenging.”
Complexities
Belinda also predicts that as the technological toolbox grows, it’ll result in a more complex production environment. “With more tools at our fingertips – biologicals, robotics, automation, to name a few – we’ll have to be more informed about their functionality, deployment and management on farm.”
She suggests a threat to the uptake of these digital options is the current lack of interoperability between tech solutions. “We see increasing farmer cynicism as a result. The onus has to be on developers to make their solutions work better while managing user expectations.”
Inevitable consolidation
And in future years, she predicts an inevitable consolidation across the agricultural sector. “I envisage there’ll be fewer players whether that be farmers, manufacturers or technology providers which has both its pros and cons. For one, it could mean we lose diversity of business and entrepreneurial thinking,” she warns.
One area which might involve some compromise is plant breeding, suggests Belinda. “As we’re starting to see, we require crop varieties which might less ‘needy’ in terms of inputs – modern varieties have largely been bred with a high dependence on chemistry.
“In order to achieve lower-input production systems, we might have to accept scruffier looking but more resilient crops which can perform positively overall.”
Career advice
In terms of advice for those at the beginning of their journey in agriculture, Belinda says be curious and have attention to detail. “Really, that’s for every aspect in life, but especially agriculture.
“We should all keep our minds open to change and allow technology to dictate a little. Be coachable – developing your absorptive capacity to take on new views and ways of doing things will be a valuable skill. Be as saturated as you possibly can,” she concludes.
This article stems from CPM’s Arable Farming 2050 feature, which was written to celebrate the magazine’s 25th anniversary.
