Agricultural technology and the rise of AI in farming.

One of the oldest, most labour intensive, rudimentary but most important occupations is farming. At a point in time, it was responsible for the employment of the vast majority of people. After the industrial revolution, the numbers of people employed in the sector dropped considerably, but many people are still employed in the sector in developing countries.

Technology has provided some improvements to this sector. The increase in population now means that we need more food to feed ourselves and farming innovation continues to be big business. According to the Financial Times, over $17 billion was invested in agric technology in 2018, an increase of 40% over 2017. This trend is likely to continue as we drive to increase efficiency and productivity. Population is growing in many developing countries, the growing population and the increase in the middle class number means that more money will be poured into the sector. For anyone interested in farming, investment into new technology and products are essential.

Everywhere we turn, there is the rise of Artificial intelligence (which may include robots or the use of advance soft and hardware). This type of new thinking will revolutionise the way we farm in the future, leading to more advanced equipment and consolidation or even elimination of small farms.