Production processes in agriculture in developed countries are largely robotic and represent a complex intelligent system that combines digital, telematics and artificial intelligence.
Digital technologies will be the main pillar of agribusiness development in the near future, – said Yaroslav Boyko, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, Head of AgriLab, an official representative of the International Organization for Precision Agriculture (ISPA) in Ukraine. He agreed to talk about global trends in the precision farming services market and best foreign practices in this area in an exclusive interview with our publication.
– Mr Yaroslav, how have you outlined the major global trends in the precision agriculture services in terms of not only technology and equipment, but also approaches to agribusiness?
– In general, world trends are unchanged. Note that they work in accelerated mode. The global community has set a goal – to increase production by 25 percent to 70 percent by 2050 to meet food demand. So, in the coming decades, agriculture is intended to both feed people and provide a healthy environment. The report, published by Goldman Sachs, highlights the significant increase in expected profits based on technological improvements and the introduction of precision farming. According to this report, the widespread introduction of new technologies will yield 70 percent more yield on existing agricultural soils. This leads to a total target market of $ 240 billion by 2050. Precision farming, digitization, artificial intelligence technologies that actively use the GPS system and telematics are at the forefront. Previously, the purpose of the latter was to automate technology to ensure a consistent communication between machines and sensors, but now the range of its capabilities has expanded significantly. The technological solutions that are proposed and will be offered in the future will increase the value of agricultural arable land, enabling greater yields per hectare.
– You are constantly visiting the United States, communicating with leading analysts in the world of precision farming. Tell us about your last trip to America and what interesting things you learned?
– Constantly keeping abreast of all the information available in the world in the field of precision agriculture. For this purpose, two weeks recently visited American farms, with experience implementing these technologies. Note that 30 years ago, US farmers started using GPS navigation, satellite data, variable rates of input, and more. According to foreign colleagues, their breakthrough was not only in the application of space technology and equipment upgrades, but also in the reform of plant-based approaches. While many other countries are pursuing crop yields, in the United States they are maximizing production efficiency by optimizing the use of their key resource, arable land.
– Please illustrate with a specific example.
– Using robots to automate weed management. Blue River Technology and Ecorobotix are two companies that have developed robots that use cameras to identify real-time weeds and decide what action to take. Telematics allows you to combine camera sensor data with “iron”, with machines, equipment, and transfer specific tasks from the camera to self-propelled units. The camera identifies, for example, what the weed is, and the program simulates the solution, gives the iron a task to do: either destroy the pest or treat it with a herbicide. Such technologies work not only in the US but also in the world. I note that these trends became known several years ago, and today they continue to improve and automate. Manufacturing processes in agriculture are largely robotic and are a complex intelligent system that combines camcorders, GPS navigation, telematics and artificial intelligence.
At Ryan Haack Farm, Westesen Farms
– What other trend innovations can you point out among those who are successfully working to improve efficiency in plant production?
– The range of new technological solutions is constantly expanding. An interesting experience is North America, where GPS sampling, soil analysis and mapping are in high demand. I will note these instruments not because they are implemented in Ukraine, but because they are basic.
– Why has yield mapping in Ukraine not yet received such demand as in the USA?
Not only in America, but also in the countries of the European Union, mapping as a method of precision farming is popular, because with its help agrarians keep track of what is happening in their production areas. With 300, 500 or 1000 hectares of crops, it is important to understand how you produce actually develops on the field, where there are better places, where there are worse areas, how to influence and improve quality and efficiency. It is the mapping of yields that answers these questions.
– And helps to make managerial decision. Is not it?
– Of course, as a result of mapping, the farmer plans to take further steps: to go to the field; to carry out the analysis; organize additional examinations and observations, but the main thing is that he already understands where to go and why. Yields are in fact the main integral factor, which testifies to a set of factors that influence in a particular part of the field on shaping the efficiency of production results, greater or less.
– What role in the modern management of agribusiness has variable rates of input of resources, first of all, of fertilizers?
– These technologies are among the trending ones, they have proven themselves well in the fields of agrarians of the USA and the countries of the European Union, as well as in Ukraine. The elements of precision farming add enormous value to the production process by increasing the yield, which is a direct result of the integration of this technology. Value-added can be determined by analyzing the estimated yield increase, and the Goldman Sachs report calculates value-added in US dollars based on each of the major forms of precision farming technology. For example, Precision Fertilizer, a global segment of the US $ 65 billion application market, has received US $ 200 billion in value-added technology. This result was achieved due to the 18% increase in grain yield. Pay attention! The introduction of such innovations has a complex effect: due to the optimization of the use of resources, the yield of agricultural crops is increased, and therefore the cost of production is reduced.
One of the programs used by Ryan Haack, Westesen Farms
– For the technology of variable fertilizer application to work perfectly, it must obviously be preceded by soil analysis. How important is this agricultural technique in the world?
– In the countries of the European Union and the USA, which can serve as an example for us, farmers have long been in doubt about the need for annual soil analysis. It is already a well-established tradition that is never broken, and is explained not only by the requirements of the laws and regular monitoring of soil fertility quality, but also by modern approaches to agriculture. The American farmer views soil analysis as a fundamental component of systematic planning for cultivation technology, as well as the calculation of resource costs for a particular field. He finds it inadmissible to make fertilizers without finding out what nutrients are present in the soil, in what amount, what is sufficient and what is missing. According to estimates by US farmers, using this approach, due to the annual analysis of the soil with a detailed selection of one hectare, it is possible to optimize the use of only fertilizers for an average amount of $ 70 per hectare.
AgriLab on a trip to the US
– What is your attitude to precision seeding technology?
– This technology is in demand in the EU, USA and other countries of the world. In a broad sense, it is a complex technological product, the application of which allows more precise placement of seeds, better control of the depth and norms of seeding, automatic shutdown of sections of the seeder. Seeding rates vary depending on certain characteristics and features of a particular field area. If, for example plot of field has high soil fertility, it will be sown more than others and vice versa.
– It is not difficult to conclude that this technology serves to increase the efficiency of sowing, to manage yields and, ultimately, to provide the best result to the agrarian. Would you be able to demonstrate in quantitative terms the success of such practices on the example of a particular American agribusiness?
– During our visit to the United States last year, we visited Crop Tech Solutions, which applied Variable Rate Technology (VRT) to sow corn seeds on 1,200 hectares of farm fields. Thanks to this solution, the overall cost savings were
50 bags of seeds worth $ 300 each. Thus, the farmer saved on seeds
$ 12.5 per hectare, with an increase in corn yield of 1,200 hectares equal to 15%. American farmers have the saying: “Do not innovate – expensive!” We fully support this view.
– It is interesting to find out what innovative solutions are currently trending in the global irrigation market in agriculture?
– Automation of irrigation technologies are gaining momentum in the world today, particularly in the US and the EU. In particular, Valmont and Lindsay, representing Valley and Zimmatik brands, are developing their business in this area. Notable in the market are companies from Israel that produce automatic drip irrigation systems that are adapted to navigation solutions.
– What are the features of this equipment in the context of precision farming?
– This equipment is designed for efficient use of expensive water. It is extremely important to optimally distribute moisture depending on the different areas of the field. To ensure greater irrigation accuracy, that is, to optimize when, what part of the field and how much to irrigate, farmers make centralized management and control decisions based on analysis of data from different sensors and meteorological stations on crop, soil and weather conditions. Therefore, in order to optimize the consumption of water resources, different elements of variable rates of their consumption are used, which allows rational distribution of moisture by the field. Incidentally, in the United States, such a technology of precision agriculture is spreading as the differential application of fertilizers by fertigation, that is, the introduction of fertilizers dissolved in water. In the absence of a system of fertilization, it is difficult or even impossible to apply fertilizers when agricultural crops have reached certain stages of development and the use of sprinkling or drip irrigation is limited. In such cases, fertilizers are applied too early, leading to nutrient loss through leaching, runoff, evaporation, and the like. This technology provides better nutrient availability and absorption efficiency, since fertilizers dissolve in irrigation water and in this form nutrients are more quickly absorbed by agricultural crops.
– From time to time special conferences and other public events discussing the role of information technology in the development of Ukrainian agriculture, I hear every time from the heads of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and some other participants of these events that the agrarian business is a leader in introduction of digital innovation into its field. Anymore! They say that it is precisely because of such activity of agrarians and their openness to weighted experiments in the field of digitization that precision agriculture is successfully developing the domestic IT industry. It is interesting to know whether the agricultural industry is a unique engine of the advancement of computer technology in countries that are leading in the world in the development and introduction of precision farming technologies?
– I wouldn’t say so. In fact, in the world, first of all, in the USA and in the EU countries, digitization, automation and other digital innovations have come to agriculture in parallel. In other words, the trends in this sense are the same as in other spheres of social relations development: in culture, medicine, science, education, industry, in non-agrarian sectors of the economy. Today, the world is moving more and more rapidly into digital technology, deploying artificial intelligence platforms in all walks of life, including agriculture. When in Ukraine they only talk about innovations, they are already actively applied abroad. It is, for example, a variety of precision farming tools for gathering information, including satellite monitoring, soil analysis, GPS navigation, drones, robots or more. This also applies to the use of state-of-the-art meteorological sensors and techniques for the instant measurement of certain soil properties, such as organic content.
– What is the function of the artificial intelligence platform?
– Use the elements of precision agriculture to gather a large amount of technological information, process it, analyze it and provide the agrarian with specific recommendations for decision-making – this is what the main purpose of the AI platform is.
– Talking to some reputable experts in the field of precision agriculture, in particular, representatives of Israel, I learned that in some countries there is an institute of consultants on various technologies, including high information. These skilled professionals are either individuals or perform a public function to provide their services to those who work in the field or livestock farm. What is the reason for the existence of such an institute of agricultural assistants abroad? Does it have a prospect in Ukraine?
– I will answer based on knowledge of the USA. The fact is that in most cases the American farmer does not have a special agricultural education and deep professional knowledge. However, in America, by the way, and in some other countries with advanced IT industry, the use of consulting, including consultant schools, is popular and active.
– Why? Is there a shortage of staff there, that is, specialists in various fields who could work in the state of the agricultural company?
– In America, there are many family-type farms with a land bank that are typically 300, 500, or 1,000 acres. These farms are the basis of the country’s agricultural industry. Such a company usually employs one to three people. For example, Ryan Haack’s American farm, Westesen Farms, cultivates a 1,000-acre farm. Its entire staff consists of only three employees. It is clear that such a manufacturer will not open its own laboratory for soil analysis. At the same time, the agro company does not even ask itself to hire a specialist in agrochemistry, who will calculate fertilizer rates, or an engineer to set up or re-equip production facilities. All these tasks are solved by special firms providing services in agricultural advisory or agrarian consulting. It has reached a remarkable level of development in the world, especially in the USA.
– There are probably a lot of agro-consulting companies. How in this variety can you choose one that is needed by a particular agricultural professional?
– To solve this problem, farmers, if necessary, entrust to those companies operating in the outsourcing market, that is, select the specialists needed for farmers. Thus, it does not make sense for a family farm, such as in the US or the EU, to hire professionals who are expensive in the employment market, to pay their wages, and to bear other related costs. An American farmer works with an outside consultant. The latter, in parallel, accompanies several customers, serving 10-15 farmers, depending on its professional capabilities.
– Due to the wide practice of work with different farms, the agro-consultant has a wide and diverse experience in the practice of technology implementation on different farms, and therefore ready to respond professionally to different situations arising in agricultural activities.
– You are right. Note also that an agro-consultant usually has unique, narrow-sector knowledge and techniques in the various fields of precision agriculture that he is constantly improving. He is always up to date with all the novelties of the market, has access to professional databases, uses modern equipment for professional work. The agro-consultant is not only able to provide professional guidance in analysis, agronomy, agrochemistry, but also to offer technological solutions. Thus, the farmer provides himself with not only the optimal composition of full-time employees, that is, has quantitative benefits, but also receives qualitative benefits – the most optimal information and technological support from an agricultural consultant.
– Talking to some reputable experts in the field of precision agriculture, in particular, representatives of Israel, he learned that in some countries there is an institute of consultants on various technologies, including high information. These skilled professionals are either individuals or perform a public function to provide their services to those who work in the field or livestock farm. What is the reason for the existence of such an institute of agricultural assistants abroad? Does it have a prospect in Ukraine?
– I will answer based on knowledge of the USA. The fact is that in most cases the American farmer is an ordinary farmer, that is, a farmer who does not have a special agricultural education and deep professional knowledge. However, in America, by the way, and in some other countries with advanced IT industry, the use of consulting, including consultant schools, is popular and active.
– Why? Is there a shortage of staff there, that is, specialists in various fields who could work in the state of the agricultural company?
– In America, there are many family-type farms with a land bank that are typically 300, 500, or 1,000 acres. These farms are the basis of the country’s agricultural industry. Such a company usually employs one to three people. For example, Ryan Haack’s American farm, Westesen Farms, cultivates a 1,000-acre farm. Its entire staff consists of only three employees. It is clear that such a manufacturer will not open its own laboratory for soil analysis. At the same time, the agro company does not even ask itself to hire a specialist in agrochemistry, who will calculate fertilizer rates, or an engineer to set up or re-equip production facilities. All these tasks are solved by special firms providing services in agricultural advisory or agrarian consulting. It has reached a remarkable level of development in the world, especially in the USA.
– There are probably a lot of agro-consulting companies. How in this variety can you choose one that is needed by a particular agricultural professional?
– To solve this problem, farmers, if necessary, entrust to those companies operating in the outsourcing market, that is, select the specialists needed for farmers. Thus, it does not make sense for a family farm, such as in the US or the EU, to hire professionals who are expensive in the employment market, to pay their wages, and to bear other related costs. An American farmer works with an outside consultant. The latter, in parallel, accompanies several customers, serving 10-15 farmers, depending on its professional capabilities.
– Due to the wide practice of work with different farms, the agro-consultant has a wide and diverse experience in the practice of technology implementation on different farms, and therefore ready to respond professionally to different situations arising in agricultural activities.
– You are right. Note also that an agro-consultant usually has unique, narrow-sector knowledge and techniques in the various fields of precision agriculture that he is constantly improving. He is always up to date with all the novelties of the market, has access to professional databases, uses modern equipment for professional work. The agro-consultant is not only able to provide professional guidance in analysis, agronomy, agrochemistry, but also to offer technological solutions. Thus, the farmer provides himself with not only the optimal composition of full-time employees, that is, has quantitative benefits, but also receives qualitative benefits – the most optimal information and technological support from an agricultural consultant.
– What is the cost of services of agro-consultant on precision farming abroad?
– The cost is determined by how many hectares a farmer has, but in any case it is much less than the cost of hiring a worker. In the United States, for example, an agricultural consultant receives an average of $ 10-15 per acre (0.4 ha) of acreage.
In the WARD lab
– In order to determine the orientation of the spread of precision agriculture in Ukraine for the future, it is interesting to find out how far they cover farmers in the country that has succeeded in this business. Do you have such statistics?
– There is such information about the USA. About 30% of local farmers use drones, 55% use satellite data, 65% map the soil properties, and about 60% analyze crop yield maps. Thus, and most importantly, 80% of US farmers use modern technologies to select and analyze soil samples. Summing up, I would say that every 8 in 10 farmers in the US somehow introduce precision farming in their work.
– Do you know farmers who have long-established practices in precision farming technology that can see the effectiveness of its elements?
– Progressive enterprises, which knowingly, systematically and for a long time have been investing their funds in precision farming technology programs, are not lacking. These include Ryan Haack’s American farm, Westesen Farms. For decades, every year, the Ward lab analyzes the soil of a farm with a grid of one sample per hectare. In case of intensive technological use, the field of zoning of soil properties changes every year. The farm is equipped with several softwares uses a special platform for data visualization, transfer to technical means of production, for automation and control of production processes, as well as for deep analysis and development of tasks for agricultural machinery. Regularly going monitoring of agricultural crops using quadrotors, introduced technology variable rates of application of lime, water, fertilizer and seeds. Irrigation systems alternately introduce water, fertilizers. Fertilizer application is carried out by the local tape method. Nitrogen fertilization is carried out as needed and in portions according to the results of the soil diagnostics that precedes it. Sowing is carried out using variable standards, taking into account the recommendations of an agronomist consultant and a seed seller, based on studies of seed companies in each region and under different soil conditions. During the development of the terms of reference, the data on the type of soil, the results of the analysis of the historical yield of agricultural crops are used.
– What are the commercial benefits of such production?
– Thanks to these approaches, resources are used efficiently, and crop yields can reach more than 20 t / ha of corn on irrigation, and in conditions of dry farming, that is, without the use of artificial irrigation of fields, about 12-15 t / ha.
– As you said, Ryan Haack, Westesen Farms is developing through the introduction of production innovation. Do you know what it intends to do in that sense?
– The plans of this agro company include the introduction of sensor technologies on sprayers, as well as systemic solutions for the prompt and effective development of a technical task for the application of nitrogen fertilizers in the right place and time, at the optimum temperature, humidity, content in soil and plants.
– Speaking of precision farming, the topic of drones in particular cannot be overlooked. How would you characterize this market?
– According to data released by the International Organization for Precision Farming, if in 2018 UAV technologies and drones were used by about 39% of farmers in the US and Canada, then by 2020 their number will increase by 34%, which is almost double. Satellite monitoring results are used by 66% of Canadian farmers, and in two years they will increase by 15%. In the US, the peak of drones fells in 2014, when many companies threw themselves into this area of innovation.
– Undoubtedly, drones are a very useful tool in agricultural production. How do these aeronautical farm assistants change crop production? In particular, what is their role in agrarian sowing campaigns?
– Thanks to current advances in unmanned aerial vehicle technology, drones significantly reduce the cost of sowing seeds. One of the most interesting startups in this market is BioCarbon Engineering, an Australian ecosystem restoration company that uses drones to plant billions of trees a year. Its current air fleet can plant up to 100,000 trees a day. It works like this: drones fly at an altitude of more than 300 meters above designated areas of the field, collect information and, using it, dump seed pods into places where it has a high chance of germination.
– How much does such technology increase the efficiency of sowing operations?
– The method of sowing seeds with drones is almost 10 times faster than using human resources to plant trees, and potentially reduces the total cost of the sowing company by half.
– It is interesting how drones are used for spraying crops with pesticides, because it is more difficult for them to work, given the significant requirements for accuracy and quality? I ask about this because the object targeted by the drone is not only a specific place on the map of the field, but a plant that, like corn or sunflower, can have different heights. In addition, is it safe to fly drones in hard-to-reach areas of the farmer, and in particular where the terrain is very patchy, or are there other significant obstacles?
– Modern drones can effectively avoid interference with flights by using a number of different distance and imaging tools such as LIDAR. Instruments such as ultrasound and LIDAR sensors allow drones, including aircraft, to avoid interference with them. With this in mind, it is now possible for drones to fly at low altitudes to spray pesticides in specific areas of the field according to the task map.
– What are the practical features of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the process of monitoring irrigation and fertigation equipment in our country and abroad?
– Every farmer, both domestic and foreign, who has a system of irrigation or fertigation in his farm knows well how important, but at the same time, it is very tedious to check that all the equipment is working properly, whether it is free from obstacles and by detecting problems in a timely manner, promptly eliminate them. Unmanned aerial vehicles give the farmer quick access to sprinklers and nozzles and allow them to be effectively inspected without the need for physical field entry.
– Could you reveal the most important nuances of using drones for a general analysis of the state of agricultural crops?
– Hyper spectral imaging technology plays an important role in the modern agricultural economy, using which farmers can obtain incredibly useful information that will help them optimize their operations. Depending on the visualization method, drones assist farmers in achieving such goals as: assessing the «health» status of agricultural crops; identification of the area with diseases and «bottlenecks» of culture growth; identification of areas with insufficient irrigation and collection of general information on environmental conditions. Today’s farmer, domestic or foreign, knows a parameter such as NDVI – a normalized relative vegetation index, which is traditionally used in the assessment of vegetation status. Drones equipped with special cameras are capable of shooting in the visible light spectrum, as well as being equipped with NIRmodified (multi spectral) cameras, they can shoot in the visible and near-infrared range, which allows ND index. In other words, NDVI images obtained with the help of agrarian aeronautical aids can detect problems on the field before they become visible to the naked eye. To do this, NDVI snapshots must be quickly collected and transformed into the data needed to make immediate management decisions that significantly improve fieldwork efficiency. Note, however, that the “window”, when they can and should be obtained, is limited, as data is often needed and the weather does not allow flying. There are times when a drone becomes an expensive toy lost in the field, and looking for a downed drone in the field is like finding a needle in the hay. So a drone in the hands of a qualified technician is a tool for obtaining data, but if there is no relevant knowledge than the drone is a toy. It is important that the drone farmer has neither the knowledge nor the experience to use it effectively. In the US, for example, there are laws that require you to be licensed to commercially use drones and take appropriate courses to use them professionally. An interesting opinion in this sense has recently been expressed by Ben Johnson, an expert in precision agriculture at Ag View FS in Princeton, IL. He said, “If you think that aerial photography is the solution to all your problems – you lose and you lose a lot,” and you cannot disagree. In modern agriculture, an integrated approach is important.
Alexander Krivenko,
specifically, for «Agronomy Today».
«Agronomy Today»
