The Future of Agriculture: a Look Into Growing Smart’s CropA Platform

By 2050, the global population is projected to reach approximately 9.8 billion people. This exponential increase of two billion people to our current population means that there will be a drastically higher demand for food and water resources in the near future. From a rapidly warming and variable climate, to limited land and resources, there are countless pressures that impact our global agricultural system. Moreover, as a highly labor and land-intensive sector, agriculture has one of the most significant impacts on biodiversity loss, pollution, environmental degradation, and climate change. So how will we be able to produce enough food for the future while also minimizing the impact farming has on our planet?

Precision agriculture, also known as precision ag or precision farming, answers this question and is a key part towards creating a more sustainable, secure, and prosperous global food supply. Precision agriculture is a high level management approach that utilizes advancements in technology to enhance farm production and profitability while lowering the levels of inputs required for growing crops. Since the 1990s, precision farming has capitalized on new and innovative technologies like multispectral and satellite imagery, drone technology, and data software tools to better understand and manage farming operations.

CropA, an innovative platform by Growing Smart, is a precision-focused knowledge database. The platform is shared via a digital platform which is made up of data harvested and delivered by UAV`s, autonomous ground rovers trained in yield inspection, and sensors located throughout farm plots to identify crop health and disease. The CropA platform integrates third party technologies, such as satellite imagery for low budget remote sensing and virtual meteorological stations for weather and evapotranspiration forecast.

One of the most innovative aspects of CropA is that it is the first precision agriculture platform using a multiform monitoring matrix of inputs gathered by high end airborne and ground monitoring tools. The monitoring matrix is composed of satellite imaging, UAVs, autonomous ground SensIRoverTM, and soil & crop monitoring sensors. The monitored information is analyzed in real time using our proprietary digital data analysis Processing Engine. Often, precision agriculture technologies are attempting to target one specific component to a farming operation. CropA is unique in that it handles many different vertices of agriculture, including irrigation, fertilization, pest control, water, and other agro technologies. To further hone in on the data analysis, CropA’s Crop Expert Team (CET) validates and enhances the analytics by using their vast experience and knowledge, converting the harvested data to comprehensive farming tasks.

 

 

Growing Smart’s Crop Expert Team

is composed of professionals from all around the world who have extensive theoretical and practical knowledge and experience in growing hundreds of specific crops. From fertilization needs, water consumption, soil properties, horticulture, propagation, greenhouse technologies, or finance, the CET has a wide range of expertise which is well founded and essential for understanding how to properly manage and think about crop development holistically. From strategic planning and yield maximization to digital data interpolation and calibration, these crop specializing agronomists are an integral part of CropA’s ability to allow farmers to analyze and resolve limiting factors in their field and farm.

By emphasizing a multidisciplinary approach in providing the right mix of technology, scholarship, and expertise, CropA’s purpose is to help lead the shift in precision agriculture. The joint efforts of farmers and major IT, are able to adapt to environmental concerns and policy as well as become supported by the most advanced agri-tech tools all because of the support provided by Growing Smart. Moreover, this model is designed to promote collaboration between farmers and allow them to both utilize and contribute to a centralized knowledge database that will help them identify and solve shared problems they may be experiencing. 

While innovation and technology may not be the only solutions towards achieving a secure global food supply, they are absolutely necessary towards building a more holistic, knowledge-based, and environmentally sustainable system of food production for current and future generations. Growing Smart and the CropA platform are not only at the forefront of this major technological and agricultural revolution, but they demonstrate that with the proper infrastructure, farming can simultaneously benefit our farmers, global citizens, and our planet.

 

For more info : https://www.growing-smart.com/

 

This article was published in the Digital issue Precision Agriculture 2021