Artificial Intelligence in agriculture: applications and future perspectives

Artificial intelligence in agriculture is increasingly used to optimize the industry’s operations, such as speeding up processes, providing managers with an overview, monitoring crops, and forecasting production, for example. All these practices are capable of increasing productivity, profitability, and reducing losses.

In this sense, technology serves to speed up production and also to support human work, which becomes much more agile and error-free.

In addition, to be successful, agriculture requires the predictability of natural phenomena. For example, issues involving soil, climate, pests, and crop adaptability need to be monitored and adjusted so as not to compromise the harvest.

In this article, we will explain the concept of artificial intelligence and show you how it can optimize and facilitate work in agriculture. We will also talk about the future of agriculture permeated by AI.

Let’s go?

What is AI?

To begin with, AI is the acronym for Artificial Intelligence.

These are machines and systems used in processes that, until now, were planned and executed exclusively by humans. In other words, artificial intelligence tries to simulate human intelligence and behavior.

Thus, it has been applied in various market sectors, minimizing errors and making production increasingly agile to meet the growing demand of the world, especially when it comes to the agricultural segment.

How to apply artificial intelligence in agriculture?

It is characteristics such as systems integration, predictability of natural phenomena, agility, flexibility, and error reduction, that make AI a great ally in agricultural practices. See, below, some ways to apply it in agriculture.

• Crop monitoring: Imagine thousands of hectares of different crops. At first, it seems impossible to control the quality of the crop, right? After all, how to know if it has been invaded by pests, is dry or in need of adaptation? With the use of artificial intelligence, this task just got a lot easier. Farmers can survey several kilometers with the use of drones and receive real-time images of the crop’s status. In addition, sensors scattered throughout the field can also provide accurate data about the crop.

• Weather forecasting: The use of technology to predict the weather is not exclusive to agriculture. This practice is present in the daily lives of thousands of people around the world and facilitates the planning of day-to-day activities. In farming it is no different, although, on a larger scale, the impact is much greater. Far beyond knowing whether it will rain or be sunny, artificial intelligence offers detailed data about wind and temperature conditions, for example.

• Autonomous vehicles: Vehicles that drive themselves are no longer fantasy or science fiction. In agriculture, it has become increasingly common to see machines guided by GPS and monitored remotely by farmers via computers or smartphones.

Perspectives for AI in Agriculture

The accelerated technological development is a fact, and its impact on the world is undeniable. Thus, the trend is that artificial intelligence in agriculture will gain more and more strength. After all, if it is causing a major revolution in urban centers, why should it be any different in the countryside?

The biggest challenges that involve the area, however, deal with natural variables and their unforeseen events, whose control can still be very complex even for ultra-technological equipment. In addition, the environmental impact and the depletion of resources are factors that the agricultural sector must be aware of in the coming years.

So, now that you, farmer, already know what artificial intelligence is, tell us in the comments if you use one of these technologies applied to your crops. Read more articles like this one in our blog.