Emerging technologies have always helped farmers around the world achieve greater yield, big data is allowing them to do in unprecedented speed and accuracy. Source: Shutterstock

Emerging technologies have always helped farmers around the world achieve greater yield, big data is allowing them to do in unprecedented speed and accuracy. Source: Shutterstock

How big data is making food production easier and faster

BIG data analytics has already made a broad-ranging impact on the farming and agriculture industry. But it seems like the transformation is now genuinely gaining momentum.

Emerging technologies have always helped farmers around the world achieve higher yield, but big data is allowing them to do so at an unprecedented speed.

Most prominently, using data, scientists have been able to develop plants that can withstand harsh climate and environmental conditions to satisfy global food demands. However, here are some interesting ways in which agriculturists use big data:

#1 | Increased accuracy in predictions

Predicting how crops will turn out has always been a challenge for farmers. But modern farmers can rest easy, thanks to big data.

Farmers today can deploy sophisticated algorithms to run deep analytics on decades worth of weather and crop data to yield accurate predictions, even before sowing the seed.

Efforts are ongoing to integrate new data from remote sensors and historical data from the fields to support deep learning models that can make significant improvements to prevailing predictive models.

Moreover, big data also delivers valuable insights that enable farmers to plan and schedule their harvest at the most optimal time. This practice increases efficiency, as well as yields.

#2 | More robust seeds

Scientists have been studying plant data to develop crops that grow in any environment since the advent of modern farming. But with big data technology, they are now able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

For example, in cornfields in Iowa and Nebraska, thousands of small cameras are taking photos of plants as they grow. And big data tools allow them to process the information using sophisticated computational powers.

This allows farmers to focus their efforts towards producing robust seeds that are suitable for different environments.

#3 | Automated smart farming

Thanks to the development in network connections, farmers can now deploy drones, farm-bots, and smart-sprinklers to automate their operations.

Sensors that are part of the IoT network collect data that yields real-time information on wind, fertilizera, and pest population. This information allows farm operators to make more informed decisions in regards to their farms in a timely fashion.

Companies within the agriculture technology are already developing self-driving tractors by deploying big data and AI, to usher in an era of automated, precision farming.

In short, as technologies continue to evolve, traditional industries, including the agriculture space are disrupted. But, big data will without a doubt is revolutionizing the agricultural sector.