Smart farming: Now robots and AI are in agriculture fields tackling one of the biggest problems of the century

We are growing rapidly in terms of population, therefore need a food production and distribution system that can accommodate another 3.6 billion people—ideally while consuming as little additional land and leaving as small an environmental footprint as possible, in order to maintain vital ecosystem services and conserve Earth's remaining wildlife.

That's clearly a challenge given that around half of the world's habitable land is under agriculture of some kind—with a high proportion of this used for livestock farming.

In a widely reported recent study, Poore and Nemecek (2018) note that a shift away from meat and dairy consumption would go a long way towards relieving pressure on agricultural land and reducing environmental impact: "Meat, aquaculture, eggs, and dairy use ~83% of the world's farmland and contribute 56 to 58% of food's different emissions, despite providing only 37% of our protein and 18% of our calories."

Moving to a diet that excludes animal products, say the study's authors, could reclaim 3.1 billion hectares of global farmland (a 76% reduction), while reducing food's greenhouse gas emissions by 6.6 billion metric tons of CO2eq (a 49% reduction), among other environmental benefits.

Farming output can increase in two basic ways: By increasing the yield per unit area (intensification), or by expanding the area under cultivation (extensification). Increased cereal production has largely been achieved by intensification over the last 50 years. Only 16% more land was used for cereals in 2014 than in 1961, for example, while global cereal production increased by 280%. During the same period, the world's population increased 136%, which means that cereal production per person has increased even as the population has more than doubled. 

These increases were largely delivered by the post-WW2 Green Revolution—a suite of technologies and farming practices involving high-yielding crop varieties, agrochemicals (fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides), irrigation, and mechanization. Industrial-scale agriculture, often using genetically modified (GM) crops, has undoubtedly delivered many benefits, but there are costs too. These include high levels of inputs (which can become pollutants if inefficiently applied), the development of resistance to pesticides and herbicides, and the use of large, expensive, and environmentally damaging farm machinery.

These and other issues have sparked interest in sustainable intensification, where the goal is to increase production from existing farmland while minimizing environmental damage, thereby maintaining the land's capacity to continue producing food, and also helping to preserve biodiversity.

                        Precision Farming

Precision agriculture, also known as "smart farming" or "precision farming," is a key component of sustainable intensification. This combines remote sensing, IoT devices, robotics, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies into an integrated high-resolution crop production system.

One of the biggest drawbacks of industrial-scale farming is the use of large, heavy machinery such as tractors, sprayers, and harvesters, which compact the soil and compromise a crop plant's ability to develop a healthy root system. Soil compaction is an important factor—perhaps the important factor—in the slowing of crop yield increases that have been observed in recent decades—here, for example in the UK.

Another drawback of industrial-scale farming is its low resolution. For example, when agrochemicals are applied to fields via sprayers many metres wide, much of it misses the target: Not only is this wasteful, but it can also create environmental pollution, harming beneficial organisms and compromising ecosystem services.

These and other problems can be addressed by replacing big human-operated machines with multiple small autonomous devices, backed up by modern IT infrastructure. The primary goal is to "unlock" flatlining crop yield curves, as shown in the above graph.

Clearly, there's a lot to play for in precision farming—not only in terms of helping to feed the world more sustainable but also in terms of cold, hard business opportunities. For evidence, look no further than the September 2017 acquisition of machine learning specialist Blue River Technology by agricultural equipment giant John Deere for $305 million.

            Smart farming and mobile coverage

Agricultural IoT devices need to send and receive data over fast, reliable wireless connections, which means that the availability of mobile broadband in rural areas is a critical factor if projects like Small Robot Company and HandsFree Hectare are to scale up.

According to Ofcom's Connected Nations Report 2017, 4G services are currently available in 61% of the "outdoor geographic area" of England and 60% of Northern Ireland, with Wales (25%) and Scotland (17%) lagging far behind even this moderate coverage.

To improve mobile coverage in rural areas, Ofcom has announced plans to impose obligations on mobile operators bidding for 700MHz spectrum (part of next-generation 5G mobile services), which will be awarded in the second half of 2019 and released in 2020. Ofcom's 5G roll-out strategy is outlined in its Enabling 5G in the UK report.

In May 2018, 56 MPs from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Rural Services signed a letter calling on Matt Hancock, (then) secretary of state for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport at the time, to ensure that 95% of the UK gets mobile coverage from all four operators—Three UK, Vodafone, EE, and O2—by the end of 2022.

The letter argued that market forces are not sufficient to meet the needs of rural areas, and that regulation—legally binding coverage obligation on mobile operators—is required. The APPG also expressed concern that Ofcom's 700MHz conditions will fall short of the 95% coverage ambition (Figure E). As well as rethinking these conditions, the letter suggested that transparency rules be changed to prevent mobile operators hiding behind "commercial confidentiality" when refusing to divulge their roll-out plans.