It\u2019s the year 2020, the Earth\u2019s population has reached 10 billion, and food is becoming more scarce and more expensive. How do we meet the need?<\/p>\n
This is a question agriculturalists, politicians, and those in food production have asked for decades. Food waste reduction through legal means and adjusted consumer habits is a high priority across the globe but the worry remains.<\/p>\n
We need larger fields, higher yields, more efficient transportation, bigger tractors.<\/p>\n
Or do we? <\/i><\/p>\n
Plant Smarter, Harvest More<\/p>\n
SwarmFarm<\/a>, an Australian company partnering with Bosch and ADAMA, believes the solution lies outside of conventional agriculture. Rather than a bigger tractor in a larger field, SwarmFarm\u2019s approach is a smarter <\/i>tractor able to maximize the current fields, crops, and infrastructure already available.<\/p>\n A literal swarm of automated machines will prepare soil, plant, care for, and harvest crops for food and textiles. 2018 will see the first large-scale use of the swarms in Australia, two years ahead of the 10 billion human population benchmark. SwarmFarm and over 150 similar companies may be our planet\u2019s best hope to feed the world.<\/p>\n Global hunger aside, what does automation in agriculture mean for farmers, food companies, and consumers?<\/p>\n Lower Cost of Food<\/p>\n Over time, with less need for workers and higher crop yields, robotic agriculture will lower the expense of food. However, the implementation of robotic agriculture will be expensive–despite these implementation costs, by 2024, the agricultural robot market will reach $74.1 billion<\/a> in annual revenue.<\/p>\n Less Human Error<\/p>\n Regardless of preparation and expertise, human error will always exist, and error in agricultural decisions can lead to famine. No matter their experience, a farmer is not able to monitor soil conditions in all areas of a field, at all hours of the day, and make perfectly timed corrections to moisture and pH balance all while protecting local rivers and ecosystems from contamination<\/i>.<\/p>\n A fully automated farm system with robots monitoring soil, plant, weather, and even drones with multi-spectral data from overhead will increase yields by removing the human guesswork.<\/p>\n Improved Hygienic Conditions<\/p>\n \u201cEmployees Must Wash Hands\u201d is an everyday sight, so why are Hepatitis A and other foodborne illnesses also everyday occurrences?<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t always the restaurant, the packager, or the consumer, it is often workers in the field. In 2015, four recalls for Creative Gourmet frozen berries<\/a> due to Hepatitis A outbreaks from berries grown in China devastated the Australian packaging company. Their facility was clean, the berries were not.<\/p>\n Robotic agriculture will reduce human exposure to food, decreasing contamination. This reduces risk for consumers and the expense of a damaging recall for producers.<\/p>\n Full Automation is the Future<\/p>\n