Better Decisions in Agriculture

While browsing the internet yesterday I came across an article from IBM about work they are doing on precision agriculture.

Like a lot of articles concerning agriculture these days, it began with the reminder that the global population will soar to 9.2 billion people by the year 2050 and that we need to produce more food with what we already have.

Enter IBM's Deep Thunder.

Deep Thunder is a supercomputer system utilized for weather modeling. Equipped with past weather data and current conditions, the system can "predict" weather 48 hours in advance, allowing farmers to make better decisions about field operations which include planting, applying pesticides, and harvesting.


Kinda neat right?

IBM's Deep Thunder is being tested and utilized in Brazil's IBM Research center and India's as well. Other agriculture companies in the United States are working to help farmers make better decisions as well.

Climate Corporation claims to provide radar predictions of storms for up to four hours in the future. This will give farmers insight on whether or not they can keep planting or harvesting in current weather conditions. Some of their other services allow farmers to obtain exact weather conditions for multiple fields on a single platform.

Encirca offers a platform that allows growers to see current crop conditions for each field as well and offers Encirca subscribers data that will help them better manage nitrogen and irrigation timing.

There are other services available to growers along these same lines currently available for purchase in the United States that I haven't mentioned. All of these platforms however allow growers to make more informed decisions about their farming operations. Making smarter decisions allows for better utilization of inputs and higher profitability and sustainability.

I am excited to see what other technologies become available to growers in my lifetime. I am also confident that, with progressing technology, the agriculture industry will be able to feed the projected 9.2 billion people that will inhabit the earth in 2050.