Farming in the twenty-first century has the opportunity of conceiving new approaches to yielding more from the land in ways that can equalise farmers in both developed and emerging economies thanks to precision agriculture, robotics and sensor-based technologies that leverage from artificial intelligence and data analytics. With the help of robotics and precision tools, AI-driven agriculture is dismantling the twentieth century practice of using large industrial vehicles to cultivate the land. Farming in this century is about caring for each plant individually, each animal individually. If the soil is well cared for in a precise and specific way, and when each animal is monitored and cared for individually, farmers can not only increase their yields - by reducing costs, or by spending less in veterinarians - but rather increase the quality of their produce incrementally as well.

Photo Credit AGRIST

Agricultural robotics is beginning to be explored in arable farming. By becoming driverless, farming vehicles can achieve more while involving fewer people, people who would otherwise need to work on other tasks that are beyond their reach. There is the chance to spray whole fields faster and go deeper with plows, while drills can be used to seed into the ground faster and with more precision.

Photo Credit Shibuya fruit grading

Large industrial machines no longer address erosion of the soil, or livestock diseases. As farming becomes increasingly precise, accurate, and small, artificial intelligence will forge a new type of farming that will prove sustainable and high-yielding.