Technology In Agriculture

This book provides a review of precision agriculture technology development, followed by a presentation of the state-of-the-art and future requirements of precision agriculture technology. It presents different styles of precision agriculture technologies suitable for large scale mechanized farming; highly automated community-based mechanized production; and fully mechanized farming practices commonly seen in emerging economic regions. The book emphasizes the introduction of core technical features of sensing, data processing and interpretation technologies, crop modeling and production control theory, intelligent machinery and field robots for precision agriculture production.

Food security is one of the primary themes of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. In this regard, agricultural engineering is considered the backbone of agriculture, and agricultural mechanization is considered a helpful way to enhance crop yield and farmers’ profitability. Technology in Agriculture presents research in the field of agricultural engineering technologies and applications in agricultural equipment engineering, biosystem engineering, energy systems engineering, and computers in agriculture. It provides an overview of recent advancements in agricultural engineering and examines key aspects of emerging technologies and their applications. In addition, the book explores modern methodologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning for agricultural mechanization.

This book presents cases from different countries with a main focus on the perspectives of using precision farming in Europe. Divided into 12 chapters it addresses some of the most recent developments and aspects of precision farming. The intention of this book is to provide an overview of some of the most promising technologies with precision agriculture from an economic point of view. Each chapter has been put together so that it can be read individually should the reader wish to focus on one particular topic. Precision Farming as a farm technology benefits from large-scale advantages due to relatively high investment costs and is primarily adopted on farms with medium to large field areas.

This book focuses on the recent advances in precision agriculture and satellite farming, detailing applications for sensing, data handling, modeling, and control. In addition, the book reviews its history - establishing the background on the various processes and applications – describes the current status, and offers insight into the future technology of satellite farming in India. Introducing processes and applications based on a global scale, the book reveals how precision agriculture can be used in large-scale agriculture, community agriculture, and diversified farming. It includes site-specific information from a variety of information sources for planning, planting, growing, and harvesting agricultural crops. It also presents a new concept based on the control system theory that can be used to formulate systematic methods for more effective precision crop production. Precision agriculture when properly integrated into the crop production process, can greatly improve overall production and sustainability.

Agricultural mechanization is the use of power and machinery to produce food and fiber. This has included the development of agricultural tools and machines, energy and power, irrigation and drainage, structures for animal housing and crop storage, and electrification. - p. 3.

This book was created with the intention of informing an international audience about the latest technological aspects for developing smart agricultural applications. As artificial intelligence (AI) takes the main role in this, the majority of the chapters are associated with the role of AI and data analytics components for better agricultural applications. The first two chapters provide alternative, wide reviews of the use of AI, robotics, and the Internet of Things as effective solutions to agricultural problems. The third chapter looks at the use of blockchain technology in smart agricultural scenarios. In the fourth chapter, a future view is provided of an Internet of Things-oriented sustainable agriculture. Next, the fifth chapter provides a governmental evaluation of advanced farming technologies, and the sixth chapter discusses the role of big data in smart agricultural applications. The role of the blockchain is evaluated in terms of an industrial view under the seventh chapter, and the eighth chapter provides a discussion of data mining and data extraction, which is essential for better further analysis by smart tools. The ninth chapter evaluates the use of machine learning in food processing and preservation, which is a critical issue for dealing with issues concerns regarding insufficient foud sources. The tenth chapter also discusses sustainability, and the eleventh chapter focuses on the problem of plant disease prediction, which is among the critical agricultural issues. Similarly, the twelfth chapter considers the use of deep learning for classifying plant diseases. Finally, the book ends with a look at cyber threats to farming automation in the thirteenth chapter and a case study of India for a better, smart, and sustainable agriculture in the fourteenth chapter. This book presents the most critical research topics of today’s smart agricultural applications and provides a valuable view for both technological knowledge and ability that will be helpful to academicians, scientists, students who are the future of science, and industrial practitioners who collaborate with academia.

This book has been developed from a workshop on Technological change in agriculture and tropical deforestation organised by the Center for International Forestry Research and held in Costa Rica in March, 1999. It explores how intensification of agriculture affects tropical deforestation using case studies from different geographical regions, using different agricultural products and technologies and in differing demographic situations and market conditions. Guidance is also given on future agricultural research and extension efforts.

According to Prof. D. Despommier, by the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban centers. Furthermore, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. New land will be needed to grow enough food to feed them. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster? One possible solution is indoor farming. However, not all crops can easily be moved in an indoor environment. Nevertheless, to secure the food supply, it is necessary to increase the automation level in agriculture significantly. This book intends to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and automation examples in agriculture.