In order for the agricultural industry to survive, it is imperative that farmers keep up with new technologies. From the introduction of steam powered tractors during the 19th Century to the development of combine harvesters, most farmers have adopted new technologies eagerly, particularly if they mean saving money and maximising profit. However, for the last century or so, there have been few really innovative developments within the industry. It can be said that tractors have become increasingly modern, with the installation of GPS devices, self-steer technology and computer monitoring systems. Nevertheless, there have been very few new introductions to the market aside from modernisations.
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Despite this, recent reports have revealed that farmers in Australia have been making use of robot-like devices to maximise their farms’ potential. These devices are designed to monitor crops, check soil condition and determine whether the crops require water.
What are these robots?
Whilst the term ‘robot’ brings to mind fictional characters like R2D2, these agricultural devices are very different. They look similar to aircrafts and are unmanned, moving through the fields to take information to do with the state of the crops and soil. The way they work is by a computer algorithm, which analyses the data that has been collected. Once the data has been analysed, the robot can then decide what action to take. The idea is for the robot to eventually be able to water, apply pesticides, prune and even harvest crops in the future. However, it is limited to data collection at present. This is extremely useful to farmers nonetheless, as it can save a significant amount of time and manual labour.
Why do they need to be used?
The robots were developed at the University of Sydney and have passed through tests on real farms with flying colours. For Australian farmers, the robots are actually extremely helpful. As a country with a huge amount of arable land, the government has plans to develop the agricultural industry to become a big economical contributor. However, the country has the problem of too few farm workers to keep up with the demand. With the robots making some of the aspects of farming more efficient, it means that farmers can optimise their crop outfit and eventual profit. If this sort of technology can be utilised and improved over time, there is no reason why it can’t have a huge impact on the Australian farming industry.
What effect could this technology have?
As mentioned above, if farmers don’t move with the times and adopt new technologies, the agricultural industry will certainly suffer. This in turn could result in loss of profit, an increasing number of farms for sale and local food shortages. Many experts have noted that driverless tractors are a technology advance that is not too far in the future and the idea that robots could ‘hand pick’ fruit or vegetables is something that is also not unthinkable. It will all depend on how successful and how accurate these technologies turn out to be as to whether farmers across the globe choose to adopt them fully.
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