Agricultural equipment manufacturer John Deere believes digital technology — from self-driving tractors to soil-monitoring sensors — can dramatically boost global farming output.
As the world’s population rises from 7 to 9 billion over the next three decades, pressure will grow on the global farming industry to sustainably produce considerably more food from the finite base of fertile agricultural land. “The available land mass isn’t going to increase, and nutrients are limited, so we need to address the challenge in a different way,” says Georg Larscheid, integrated solutions implementation manager at agricultural machinery giant John Deere. And the large-scale application of technology is the only real solution, he says.
Farming has, to a large extent, kept pace with population growth thanks to the enormous efficiencies gained through mechanization, with ever more powerful farm machinery helping to boost both efficiency and crop yields. “But the industry is only farming land to around 50% of its capacity and after 100 years the scope of equipment such as combine harvesters and tractors is reaching its evolutionary limit,” he says.
The next big leap forward in efficiency and productivity will come from information-enabled agriculture powered by smart connected technology. “There is going to be a lot more digital technology — from IoT sensors, connectivity, cloud-based analytics, autonomous vehicles and other services — across farms and farming machines,” says Larscheid.
