About 12,000 years ago, humanity shifted from a nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering and began establishing settlements with more dependable food supplies in what is known as the Neolithic Revolution. We’ve been farming ever since.
The number of US farms peaked in 1935 at 6.8 million. Today, that figure is around 1.9 million, with an average farm size of 464 acres, per the US Department of Agriculture.
Over the years, farming methods have changed. In 1837, a young blacksmith by the name of John Deere designed a steel plow for sticky soil, which meant farmers no longer had to stop to scrape off dirt while plowing, for example.
If you guessed that the artificial intelligence revolution is once again changing the game for farmers, you’d be correct. In fact, the agricultural company named after that blacksmith believes we may see fully autonomous corn and soybean farms by 2030.
Just as AI is creating opportunities at work, home and in travel, it’s also opening doors within farming.
Take Hylio. This 9-year-old startup is applying AI and drones for agricultural use, such as applying fertilizer and pesticide, in what CEO Arthur Erickson calls “precision agriculture.”
That means if there is a weed infestation or a fungal outbreak on a farm, a farmer can target the affected area rather than having to spray the entire farm.
“With a tractor or an airplane, you’re taking a blanket approach, but with the drones, you can actually reduce that chemical input to your crops … [and] you can get way, way, way down,” Erickson said. “That’s not only good from an economic standpoint, but also you are not as negatively impacting your farm.”
Other benefits include reducing water and fuel needs, and easing labor shortages.
To tap into the power of AI and drones to target crops, weeds and bugs, the system has to learn how to distinguish between crops and weeds so the drone knows what and where to spray. But because the difference between a weed and a crop can be hard to discern…
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