5 upvotes, 7 direct replies (showing 7)
View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science
Why is farming still a fairly low-tech industry?
True, robotics in unstructured environments like outdoors in the dirt is more challenging than assembling cars in a factory, but it seems like the mainstream farming industry stopped at GPS-equipped tractors.
Comment by [deleted] at 13/12/2023 at 16:32 UTC
19 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[removed]
Comment by MCPtz at 13/12/2023 at 19:16 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Your assumption is incorrect.
There are several ag robotics startups or R&D projects at large corporations, that are targeting major changes in modern agriculture.
E.g. A fully automated tractor that does a direct application of pesticides to weeds growing next to desired crops, including recognizing (computer vision) different types of plants and applying specific pesticides to specific plants, while not spraying the pesticides onto the desired crop.
They keep innovating. I recommend searching for videos on youtube.
I found this video, although it feels like it's generated by an AI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntDGqWv5KBk
Comment by TownAfterTown at 13/12/2023 at 18:17 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
There are some pretty high tech tractors. Automated driving, photo recognition to identify weeds and precision-spray them with pesticides, etc. But yeah, like the other said a lot comes down to economics. A lot of those high-tech automated hydroponic farms just can't compete cost-wise with free sun, free rain, and (relatively) cheap ground.
Comment by Smyley12345 at 14/12/2023 at 07:23 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Low tech compared to what? In terms of our ability for farmers to produce calories per man-hour we are continually gaining year over year. That is very largely based on genetics advancements in seed science and in higher and higher granularity targeted fertilizer application. True autonomous tractors aren't here yet but if you look at the ability for an ever shrinking farming workforce being able to feed an ever growing population, this is entirely built on technological advancement.
Comment by briareus08 at 13/12/2023 at 20:12 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The leap from GPS-equipped tractors to e.g. fully autonomous fleets is much larger than previous steps, for one. Autonomy is difficult to get right, and difficult to make it both safe (won’t run over people) and efficient (won’t get stuck for hours thinking a small bump is a person). It also requires much more know-how from users and constant supervision. I’d say it’s a good 10 years away from being viable in an average-sized farm.
Comment by First_Internet at 13/12/2023 at 16:26 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
it’s not really. It’s just the tech is more hidden or is part of larger operations that are not very transparent to the public.
For example, John Deere has had autonomous tractors for around a decade now
https://www.deere.com/en/autonomous/
Comment by RusticCampfire at 18/12/2023 at 02:59 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Probably there are not enough economical stimuli.
In the 1890s, approximately 27.09 million people were employed in agriculture in the United States, which was about 43% of the population at that time. In the 1950s, approximately 18.3 million people were employed in agriculture in the United States, which was about 12.2% of the population at that time. In contrast, as of 2023, around 5.01 million people are employed in agriculture, accounting for about 1.5% of the current population.
As automation is still actually happening in farming, it doesn't have as significant impact on the society as earlier.