As a self-proclaimed “part-time farmer”, who has been in agriculture for nearly 20 years, I have come across a multitude of arguments in favor of AI and against it. AI has a different perspective on whether the current data models will provide enough samples to apply in the agriculture industry. And for a population of nine or ten billion people in the future.
Some experts argue that a farmer’s mindset is to produce as much of a crop as possible. Others argue that the system will fail as long as farmers are not educated and encouraged to adapt to the needs of the market. This is where AI can be useful. AI can teach better seeding, harvesting techniques to farmers, although accurate decision-making requires human interference. Weather is a critical factor in decision making, and farmers cannot entirely rely on Deep Learning models to provide perfect seeding time. A mobile app can predict the weather based on sample data but not accurate ones.
In the future, Can we feed ourselves and those who follow us? Will there be a need to increase our productivity and quality of the commodities. The basic idea is that a farm’s yield is directly related to the amount of work the farmer is willing to put into it provided environmental conditions are favorable. Sudden hell rain can destroy all plants in an instance. Some argue that the farmer’s educations play a vital role in the productivity of a farm. However, did farmers ever learn operating the mobile, and now the fact that maximum farmers use WhatsApp for communication. The reality is, budget constraints and lack of tools heed the speed of the work like tilling and harvesting. Another problem is, maximum farmers, do not have enough lands to cultivate. They make less profit from lesser lands, and so they invest less diverse commodities.
One fundamental solution is to rent land. People from wealthy professions like Engineers, Doctors can purchase lands instead of a lavish house. Rent this land to farmers and use it to grow food. At the same time, they can help farmers to learn simple probabilistic models like Bayesian theorems and leverage farmer’s experience. It can be very profitable on both sides, especially if there is a plenty of land. It can be even more profitable with government subsidies and relaxation on commodity taxes.
An agri-business is one that has the potential to provide the type of sustainable system that will benefit the human race. One which does not need to produce massive amounts of food to feed people and that will be able to expand and grow itself. This type of business will be sustainable and self-sustaining.
This is why I believe that there is a need to learn more about the new sustainable system of farming, so that future generations will have an easier time surviving in their world. With a little education and inspiration, it should be easy for anyone to find a farm that allows you to purchase and rent it to farmers to provide a better quality of commodities. If we live on a belief that farming is a farmer’s problem and AI problems are an engineering team’s problem then we are better off with less. It will never succeed, and We would never live a quality life.
