Technology is transforming the agriculture industry.
Farms are following cities, cars, homes – and just about every other entity and industry – in becoming smarter through the adoption of frontier technologies.
This week the Bühler Group announced it is simplifying life for rice farmers with its ‘new digital rice analyzer TotalSense’. It uses Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud technologies to remove time-consuming inspection tasks; sending samples to a ‘cloud-based solution’ that can give swift and objective feedback on the condition of rice grains. This improves yield and quality by speeding up the decision-making process and giving farmers an early warning of any problems.
“These innovations are the beginning. We are investing considerable resources in developing digital services. We partner up with startups, researchers, institutes, and customers in order to bring relevant innovation to our customers,” said Ian Roberts, CTO of the Bühler Group.
Other key players working in the industry are following this trend, with the likes of BASF and Cisco investing in early stage agtech companies.
Microsoft and EY also announced last month they were strengthening their tie-up to develop ‘data-driven solutions’ that harness artificial intelligence and IoT platforms to boost production.
And with the global population set to surpass 9 billion by 2050, increasing the demand for food production by 70%, the marriage of tech and agriculture will become increasingly important.
