In the future, will farming be fully automated?

Time:Apr-12,17  View:104  Author:Sherry

In the not-too-distant future, our fields could be tilled, sown, tended and harvested entirely by fleets of co-operating autonomous machines by land and air.
And they'll be working both day and night.
Driverless tractors that can follow pre-programmed routes are already being deployed at large farms around the world.
Drones are buzzing over fields assessing crop health and soil conditions. Ground sensors are monitoring the amount of water and nutrients in the soil, triggering irrigation and fertiliser applications.
And in Japan, the world's first entirely automated lettuce farm is due for launch next year.
The future of farming is automated.
Food shortages, big business
The World Bank says we'll need to produce 50% more food by 2050 if the global population continues to rise at its current pace.
But the effects of climate change could see crop yields falling by more than a quarter.
So autonomous tractors, ground-based sensors, flying drones and enclosed hydroponic farms could all help farmers produce more food, more sustainably at lower cost.
No wonder the agricultural robotics sector is growing so fast.
One report, by US firm WinterGreen Research, forecasts that the market will grow from $817m (£655m) in 2013 to $16.3bn (£13bn) by 2020.
But investment bank Goldman Sachs is far more bullish, predicting a $240bn market over the next five years. Manufacturers including John Deere, CNH Industrial and AGCO are all fighting to corner the market in driverless tractors.
As well as big kit, small kit is giving farmers up-to-the-second data on the state of their fields and produce - what Dr Roland Leidenfrost of Deepfield Robotics calls the "internet of plants and fields".
Bosch start-up Deepfield, based in Germany, is working to automate the growing and testing of seed crops, tracking the susceptibility to weeds and drought of different genetic varieties.
Meanwhile, engineers in Shropshire, England, are trying to show it is now possible to farm a field without a human setting foot in it at all.
The Hands Free Hectare project will use flying drones and automated tractors in the coming year to grow and harvest a cereal crop.
Engineers from Harper Adams University - together with a North Yorkshire farming technology company called Precision Decisions - are testing prototype machines now, and aim to plant their crop in March for harvest in September.

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