Automation in agricultural equipment and technology

 Automation in agricultural equipment and technology

Agriculture has been the most crucial factors to accelerate economic growth as 4 percent of global gross domestic product in 2018 due to higher agricultural productivity. Agriculture has potentials to reduce the poverty, improve food security for eighty percent (80%) and raise income of households who lives in rural areas adopting the farming as the major livelihood system. To feed for the projected 9.7 billion people by 2050, the growth of agriculture sector is more effective in raising incomes among the poorest. In 2016, 65 percent of poor working adults made a living through agriculture. There was an allocation of USD 5.8 billion in new commitments related to agricultural sector in 2020. In the same year, one hundred and twenty eight projects helped to provide agricultural services and assets for 7.2 million farmers. One of the main financiers of agriculture is the World Bank Group. According to World Bank Statistics, three million farmers have adopted improved agricultural technology by the end of 2020.

Even in Sri Lanka, agriculture has been an important driver of poverty reduction which accounted for about one third of the decline in poverty over the past decade. To modernize through technological advancements, commercialization and diversification, the Modern Agriculture Technology Parks worth of total cost USD 33.4 million are established to scale-up of innovative agriculture technology packages that are not still available to support the improvements in agricultural productivity.

Hence, the level of intelligent and automation in agricultural equipment or machinery has become an important indicator to measure the development of contemporary agriculture. Sustainable agriculture aims at the production of high-quality food and raw materials in sufficient quantity for a wide range of consumers with high quality in a short period. In order to execute difficult operations at high efficiencies and without environmental pollution, modern field machinery and equipment should be able to cope with complex agricultural processes. Around 2015, agriculture technology startups were invested worth of more than US$ 2 billion by Venture capitalists. In 2016, the demand for innovative farm technology is high and that is why modern farmers are willing to embrace these new techniques and inventions.

Continuous research and development (R&D) and analysis of agricultural machinery automation technology cause to undergone major changes in agricultural planting, production, growth and harvesting. Among them, parametric design technology is an efficient technology produce parameter adjustment and real-time driving product elements in need of agricultural product requirements. Computer Aided Design (CAD), Parametric Design of harvesting Machinery Gearbox and Agricultural Ultrasonic Atomizing Transducer are best examples for the parametric design technology machineries and technologies and China is experiencing these technologies. As well as, the Computerized Weather Modeling and online weather services are becoming increasingly sophisticated and farmers can access to these to increase the productivity of agricultural products. Remote Satellite Imaging has also enhanced and it allows for real-time crop imagery which can be taken in resolutions of five meter-pixels and even greater. Without live presence or standing actually in the farmland, it permits farmers to examine crops well.

In addition to that, the crop science, soil science, plant protection, automatic monitoring, decision support and many more fields of agro side are supported by the information technology with the help of GIS and GPS which is the precise agriculture technology system has been implemented in most cases in agricultural sector in the world. For examples; Soil and Water Sensors have the ability to detect moisture and nitrogen levels and farms can determine when to fertilizer and water according to the previous analyzed data. Furthermore, Pervasive Automation is doing the role of reducing operator workload such as using autonomous vehicles controlled by robotics, remotely through terminals and hyper precision that make seeding and fertilization routes optimal. Even for the weeding in farmlands, China uses an Orchard intelligent weeder automation program designed machine which is called as AOA-based weeder developed by the Internet of Things (IoT) combining with the RSSI ranging positioning algorithm.

Not only China but the countries such as India, Israel and Brazil have also witnessed its rapid transitions in agricultural sector with mechanization and usage of advanced technologies such as vertical farming, Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), hydroponics and Geographic Information System (GIS). Recently, India has operated Agro Star in the Indian states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan through linking over 500,000 farmers on its digital platform. Even Sri Lanka has started to go forward on the way of using advanced technology in the Sri Lankan Agriculture sector by e-agriculture programs and services such as Wikigviya web, AgMIS and the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) is doing experiment on different nanotechnology related research and development activities to produce slow-release fertilizer, organic acid based weedicides etc. Its progress towards the technology-oriented agriculture has gradually speeded up to tackle with the emerging agriculture sectors in globe.
The impact of advanced technology revolves every aspect or field in the globe to speed up the every process and get quick results especially for the higher income and economic growth and development of a nation. It is evident that the agriculture technology is becoming more computerized and as a result of that agricultural equipment and technology is automated with no halt by giving the higher gross domestic product to the economy at minimum cost with high quality for the particular nation.

References
Agriculture Sector Modernization Project. (2018, February 7). Retrieved March 4, 2021, from Ministry of Agriculture: http://www.agrimin.gov.lk
Adoption of Modern Technologies in Agriculture(2019). Colombo: CENTRAL BANK OF SRI LANKA.
Agriculture and Food. (2020, September 30). Retrieved March 6, 2021, from THE WORLD BANK: https://www.worldbank.org
7 Emerging Agriculture Technologies. (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2021, from ayOka: https://ayokasystems.com
Xiong, L., Sun, S., & Xiao, M. (2018). Agricultural Machinery Automation and Intelligent Research and Application. China: IOP ebooks.