Top 5 Recent Agricultural Inventions

 

After 1960’s Green Revolution, Agriculture has undergone many substantial technological advancements. Whether it was drip irrigation, precision agriculture, involvement of drones, sensors & big data, environmental controls, farm management software, smart refining & packaging etc. have all created a huge impact in taking agriculture into the digital age.

Kisan Samrat has also incorporated majority of those and today we are going to tell you as well, the Top 5 Recent Agriculture Inventions that took place across the world. Take a look!

1.       GIS-Based Agriculture

GIS softwares used for precision farming in order to map current and future changes in precipitation, temperature, crop yields, plant health, etc. It uses of GPS-based software applications and smart machinery to optimize fertilizer and pesticide usage; provided that farmers have to treat certain areas and not entire field. Apart from this, GIS-based agriculture uses satellites and drones to collect valuable data on vegetation, soil conditions, weather, and terrain. All of these reduce effort and save time & money.

2.       Satellite-Derived Data

Satellites monitors fields in real time and helps in predicting yields. The sensors provided imagery in various spectra, allowing for the application of numerous spectral indices, such as:

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) which detects vegetation content, wilting plants, and overall plant health

Canopy Chlorophyll Content Index (CCCI) that helps with nutrient application.

Normalized Difference RedEdge (NDRE) detects Nitrogen content.

Modified Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI) minimizes soil background impact at the earliest developmental stages of plants

3.       Drones-Derived Data

Drones help in detecting crop biomass, plant height, presence of weeds, and water saturation on certain field areas with high precision. They are fast and deliver better and more accurate data with higher resolution in comparison to satellites and scouts. Drones are even used to apply insecticide on the hazardous area.

4.       EOS Crop Monitoring & Online Data

EOS has designed Crop Monitoring which is a digital platform that allows satellite monitoring to speed up a farmer’s decision-making for an accurate field treatment. Following are some of its features:

·         Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to track crop health. 

NDVI measures amount of chlorophyll in plants. Higher the values, healthier is the vegetation, since the more chlorophyll is available to the plant.

·         Scouting app. 

It employs digital field maps and helps farmer assign multiple tasks to scouts in few clicks. Add a field, drop a pin, and set a task. Scout directly goes to the selected location and checks problem areas at the site, inspects pest activity, performs weed management activities etc., immediately storing recordings in the app. This saves time and inspects problem areas only when needed, thereby giving ample time to take necessary preventative actions.

·         Weather analytics. 

It gives weather reports along with plant condition because of which farmers precisely apply irrigation and prevent frost or heat damage.

·         Satellite imagery. 

It extracts valuable information about field conditions from specific areas which makes farmers proactive and helps him make reliable decisions. For example: what crops to plant, when to harvest, how to effectively plan for the next season, what amount of nutrients and fertilizers apply, and many more.

5.       Combining Data

Farmers now can compare the performance of their field with the average performance of all fields in the given district. Multiple datasets obtained from all of the fields are compared using the NDVI vegetation index. It even employs numerous data sets such weather data analysis and offers following options:

“Winter kill”: low temperatures that are bad for your winter crops

“Cold stress”: days when the temperature dropped below -6℃ to assess the damage to early crops from frost

“Heat stress”: days with temperatures above +30℃ to assess the damage from heat stress

It even monitors precipitation and temperature as well.

Summary

Agricultural technologies are evolving with highest rate and are helping farmers to optimize inputs, simplify farm management, and increase productivity. Kisan Samrat have been analysing and researching about these technologies and strongly believes that they account for increased yields, reduced maintenance costs, and large profit margins. Precision agriculture offers a Swiss army knife of farming techniques for today’s, and tomorrow’s farmers, which we at Kisan Samrat believes all the farmers should adopt instantly.