How AI can be used in agriculture

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

In the 21st century, the farming industry has to respond to a rapidly changing environment. With climate issues affecting resources such as water and land, and the human population exploding, things are not always easy in agriculture. Thankfully, developments in artificial intelligence (AI) are making it easier for farmers to keep up with changing circumstances and demands. From soil and crop monitoring, to spraying pesticides and fertilizers, AI can be used to make everyday farming tasks easier and more efficient.

Curious? Check out this gallery to learn more.

Crop and soil monitoring

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

The first important application of AI in agriculture is related to crop and soil monitoring. When it comes to growing crops, the soil must have the right nutrients and progress must be monitored.

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

Traditionally, this would be done by humans: farmers would check soil composition manually and track crop growth by their own observation. However, this is neither accurate, nor efficient.

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

Thanks to AI, farmers are now able to use drones (UAVs) to capture image data and train computer vision models in order to intelligently monitor soil and crop conditions.

Spotting disease

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

Plant diseases and pests can be devastating to a farmer’s harvest. But thanks to image recognition technology, their detection can now be automated.

Monitoring cattle

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

Of course, agriculture is not only about plants and crops. There are plenty of livestock farmers out there making use of AI technology, too.

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

This has obvious benefits for farmers, since they do not need to be physically standing next to their cows in order to spot a potentially serious problem.

Accurate spraying

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

Indeed, drones equipped with computer vision make it possible to automate the spraying of pesticides and/or fertilizers uniformly over a given area.

Automatic weeding

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

When it comes to weeds, using AI just to spot them doesn’t save farmers a huge amount of work. Instead, they need the technology to remove the unwanted visitors.

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

BoniRub teaches itself to distinguish between weeds and crops by looking at leaf size, shape, and color. That way it can be sure to get rid of weeds, without destroying valuable crops.

Aerial surveillance

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

With AI, farmers can be notified automatically if something goes wrong, without having to constantly observe the land themselves.

Sorting crops

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

In the same way that computer vision can be used to spot defects in crops as they grow, it can also be used to separate the ‘good’ produce from the 'bad.'

Overall potential

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

It can be seen, then, that AI has the potential to disrupt, if not transform, the agricultural industry over the course of the 21st century.

Risks

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

That does not mean that the widespread introduction of AI in agriculture is without its risks, however.

Exacerbate ownership concentration

Crop and soil monitoring, Spotting disease, Monitoring cattle, Accurate spraying, Automatic weeding, Aerial surveillance, Sorting crops, Overall potential, Exacerbate ownership concentration

There are also concerns that AI in agriculture could exacerbate ownership concentration and benefit large corporations or wealthy individuals at the expense of smaller farms.

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